Opioids can worsen serious pain
Opioid medications designed to alleviate serious pain may actually make pain worse, a new review of various studies into opioids has revealed.
Carried out by Dr Peggy Compton, Associate Professor of Nursing at the UCLA School of Nursing, Los Angeles, the review on opioid-induced induced hyperalgesia, or pain, was published on the Pain-Topics.org website.
In her evaluation of the clinical evidence on opioid-induced pain, Dr Compton explained that opioids such as morphine can cause increased sensitivity to pain and noted while it is not common it can be very difficult to manage.
However, she also suggested that there are several strategies which could help deal with or prevent it.
These include, but are not limited to: keeping the dose of opioids as low as possible, long-acting opioids and the use of additional medications such as COX-2 inhibitors.
She said: "It is essential that healthcare providers carefully monitor patients' responses to opioid therapy and recognise that several conditions other than opioid-induced hyperalgesia - including worsening disease, opioid tolerance, withdrawal, pseudoaddiction, or addiction - can lessen opioid-analgesic effectiveness. In some cases, higher opioid dosing is needed.
"However, if opioid-induced hyperalgesia occurs, other strategies should be employed to provide pain relief."
Dr Compton also stressed the importance of further research into opioids.
An Arthritis Research Campaign spokesman said that opioid treatments in patients with severe arthritis had their place, but were usually used sparingly because of their potential for side effects and dependency.
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