Around-the-Clock, Controlled-Release Oxycodone Therapy for Osteoarthritis-Related Pain

Opioids in chronic noncancer pain

“…Noble et al showed that oral opioids reduced pain long-term in the relatively small proportion of individuals with chronic noncancer pain who continued treatment [37]. However, for oral opioids they evaluated morphine in three studies [44][45][46], tramadol in one study [47], methadone in one study [48], extended-release oxymorphone in one study [49], controlled-release oxycodone in one study [50], as well as dihydrocodeine and buprenorphine [46]. For evaluation of effectiveness of transdermal fentanyl they included three studies [44,51,52]; however, only two studies utilized pain relief of 50% or greater as their significant criteria [44,46].…”

“…Consequently, patients who experienced long-term pain outcomes represented only a subset of the patients initially enrolled in the studies. Multiple randomized controlled trials also included open-label extension trials [45,47,49,50]. In summary, among individuals with chronic noncancer pain taking oral opioids, approximately a third did not continue long-term treatment with a follow-up time ranging from 6 to 18 months because of the intolerable adverse effects.…”

Effect of a switch of aromatase inhibitors on musculoskeletal symptoms in postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer: the ATOLL (articular tolerance of letrozole) study

“…The BPI short questionnaire asks questions about pain relief, quality of the pain, and the patient's perception in relation to the possible cause of the pain. The BPI is based on a scale from 0 to 10, a score of 7 or higher on the scale represents a more severe level of (versus mild or moderate) pain [16,17]. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed with French versions of the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) (a scale ranging from 0 to 3; higher values indicating more disability), and the SF-12…”

“…The SF-12 is a subset of 12 questions from the SF-36 Ò Health Survey which assesses subscales for a physical and a mental component in relation with quality of life [17][18][19]. The scores could range from 0 to 100, where higher scores indicated better QoL.…”

Long-Term Treatment of Osteoarthritis Pain: Achieving a Balance Between Efficacy and Tolerability for a Successful Chronic Therapy

“…These results suggest that opioids are increasingly gaining acceptance as a treatment option for chronic osteoarthritis pain (Altman & Smith, 2010;Dominick et al, 2004;Sullivan et al, 2008). In clinical trials, opioids have demonstrated efficacy for the management of moderate to severe osteoarthritis pain (Altman & Smith, 2010;Avouac et al, 2007;Caldwell et al, 2002;Matsumoto et al, 2005;Nuesch et al, 2009;Roth et al, 2000). In a meta-analysis of 13 randomized placebo-controlled trials of orally or transdermally administered opioids (oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine sulfate, tramadol, tramadol/acetaminophen, or codeine) that included a total of 3,733 patients with osteoarthritis pain, the pooled effect size of opioids compared with placebo for pain intensity reduction was −0.79 (95% CI, −0.98 to −0.59) based on a random-effects model (Avouac et al, 2007).…”