Just How Effective Are Opioids In Neuropathy Treatment?

Today's post from medpagetoday.com (see link below) is an interesting review of a large-scale study of the effects of opioid treatment on people with neuropathy. It concludes that opioid use has its limitations but there is no evidence that it is either, over-prescribed by doctors, or abused by patients. This removes it immediately from the current hysteria concerning opioid medication and recognises that people with severe neuropathy have very few options. As a result, it calls for new medication development, not to remove the 'evils' of opioids but to provide a better alternative for patients in chronic pain. Definitely worth a read though maybe a little disheartening for people who rely on opioids to dampen their symptoms, having already exhausted all other options.

Long-Term Opioids May Not Help in Polyneuropathy
by Kristin Jenkins Contributing Writer, MedPage Today May 23, 2017 Reviewed by Henry A. Solomon, MD, FACP, FACC Clinical Associate Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner last updated 05.23.2017
 
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Long-term opioid therapy among patients with polyneuropathy appears to increase the risk of adverse outcomes without benefiting functional status, according to a retrospective population-based study.
Note the data agree with prior studies showing opioid use disorders are more prevalent among those receiving long-term opioid therapy, but did not indicate that long-term opioid therapy significantly increases mortality among patients with polyneuropathy as it does among broader populations of patients reported elsewhere.


Long-term opioid therapy in patients with polyneuropathy appears to increase the risk of adverse outcomes without benefiting functional status, researchers said.

Data from a retrospective, population-based cohort study showed that 18.8% of 2,892 patients with polyneuropathy received opioids continuously for at least 90 days compared to 5.4% of 14,435 controls. They were also more likely to rely on gait aids and have difficulty climbing stairs (adjusted HR 1.7) and experience depression (adjusted HR 1.53), opioid dependence (aHR 2.85), and opioid overdose (aHR 5.12) compared to controls, Christopher J. Klein, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, and colleagues reported online in JAMA Neurology.

"By showing that polyneuropathy increases the risk of long-term opioid therapy and that long-term opioid therapy is not associated with improved functional status but is associated with adverse outcomes, this study provides useful information to counsel patients with polyneuropathy who are considering or are already receiving opioid therapy," the researchers said. "Furthermore, it provides evidence that could influence treatment guidelines and health policy."

The researchers also reported that a diagnosis of opioid abuse among patients with polyneuropathy who were taking opioids for any length of time was observed in less than 2% of patients and that there was no significant association with overall mortality. However, there was a 7.2% rate of opioid dependence and a 2.6% rate of opioid overdose, they pointed out, adding that this "underscores that abuse and dependence are not synonymous."

"Thus, our results agree with those of prior studies citing that opioid use disorders are more prevalent among those receiving long-term opioid therapy, but we did not find that long-term opioid therapy significantly increases mortality among patients with polyneuropathy as it does among broader populations of patients reported elsewhere.

Importantly, the study also showed that neurologists and pain physicians were only prescribing long-term opioid therapy in a small percentage of patients, a finding consistent with national trends, the researchers noted. "Therefore, it is likely that discussing potential benefits, as well as adverse outcomes, of long-term opioid therapy will fall to the primary care clinician," Klein and colleagues said.

For the study, the Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP) database was searched for prescriptions given to patients with polyneuropathy and for those given to controls in ambulatory practice. All data came from participants who resided in Olmsted County from Jan. 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 2010 and were reported previously. The latest follow-up ended Nov. 25, 2016.

Patients with polyneuropathy receiving 90 days or more of opioid therapy were more likely to be female (57%) than those receiving short-term opioid therapy (P<0 .001="" 46="" 69="" age="" also="" although="" between="" br="" common="" commonly="" differences="" documented="" for="" groups="" in="" indication="" long-term="" median="" most="" musculoskeletal="" no="" of="" opioid="" oxycodone="" p="0.13)." pain="" patients="" polyneuropathy="" prescribed="" prescribing="" significant="" similar="" starting="" the="" therapy.="" there="" trends="" two="" versus="" were="" with="" xycontin="" years="">
Although rates of lower limb complications were comparable between the two groups, patients with polyneuropathy used non-opioid analgesics more often than controls.

In an accompanying editorial, Nora Volkow, MD, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Walter Koroshetz, MD, of the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, noted that opioids in this study were prescribed more often for treatment of non-neuropathic indications. However, this finding doesn't change the evidence behind current guidelines advising against opioids as first-line treatment in most cases of neuropathic pain because of long-term safety concerns, they said.

The study also highlights the limited alternatives for managing chronic pain, and the urgent need to develop new medications, the editorialists said. Recent work in animal models demonstrate that innovative opioid peptides and biased opioid agonists may provide equivalent pain relief with less tolerance and fewer adverse effects while success with biologics for inhibiting pain at the its source may shift the focus to prevention, they said.

"In the meantime, structural changes in the healthcare system, including training of physicians in the screening and management of pain, as well as coverage by insurance of comprehensive pain management programs, are needed to ensure that patients receive the most effective treatments for their chronic pain conditions," Volkow and Koroshetz said.

Limitations of the study include the fact that it was based on prescription data without confirmation that prescriptions were filled or taken as intended.


This study was funded by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study authors disclosed no conflicts of interest. The editorialists disclosed no funding or conflicts of interest.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/painmanagement/65497