How to wean friends and influence health: Opioid weaning and discontinuation aided by a simple health and wellness coaching program.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a simple health and wellness coaching (HWC) program embedded within routine clinical practice resulted in improved opioid weaning and discontinuation. DESIGN: Retrospective double cohort study comparing longitudinal opioid use data and numeric pain scale ratings for patients in each group. SETTING: Single noninstitutional subspecialty pain management practice. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty (daily opioid using) patients undergoing a multifo-cal HWC program with integrated pain neuroscience education (PNE) compared to 20 age- and gender-matched (daily opioid using) patients undergoing usual care. INTERVENTION: A systematized series of interactive self-management topics/lessons on basic health topics pertinent to chronic pain, eg, posture, mobility, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and PNE. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Daily morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) trajectory and discontinuation success (hypothesis and outcome measure formulated before data collection); numeric pain scale rating trajectory (hypothesis and outcome measure formulated after data collection). RESULTS: MME decrease was significantly greater among cases (93.5 percent) than controls (50 percent; p = 0.004) as was discontinuation of opioids (30 percent vs 0). Cases reported decreased longitudinal 10-digit pain scale rating (-0.8) compared to controls (+0.1) without statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Providing simple and salient HWC including PNE within pain management can significantly improve opioid weaning and discontinuation while mitigating pain.

Low-dose naltrexone, an opioid-receptor antagonist, is a broad-spectrum analgesic: a retrospective cohort study.

Aim: To evaluate the use of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) as a broad-spectrum analgesic. Methods: Retrospective cohort study from a single pain management practice using data from 2014 to 2020. Thirty-six patients using LDN for ≥2 months were matched to 42 controls. Pain scores were assessed at initial visit and at most recent/final documented visit using a 10-point scale. Results: Cases reported significantly greater pain reduction (-37.8%) than controls (-4.3%; p < 0.001). Whole sample multivariate modeling predicts 33% pain reduction with LDN, with number needed to treat (for 50% pain reduction) of 3.2. Patients with neuropathic pain appeared to benefit even more than those with 'nociceptive'/inflammatory pain. Conclusion: LDN is effective in a variety of chronic pain states, likely mediated by TLR-4 antagonism.

Naltrexone has historically been used to treat various substance use disorders, but recent discoveries have sparked interest in using low-dose naltrexone (LDN) to manage chronic pain. This study compared pain levels reported by patients before and after at least 2 months of LDN treatment to those reported by patients with the same painful diseases, who did not take LDN. Overall, patients who took LDN reported significantly more pain relief than patients who did not take LDN. How LDN alleviates pain seems complex, but apparently involves an anti-inflammatory effect on cells in the brain and spinal cord. LDN is extraordinarily safe, with no known risks (unlike most standard pain medications), and should be studied more in the treatment of chronic pain.

How prevalent and severe is addiction on GABAmimetic drugs in an elderly German general hospital population? Focus on gabapentinoids, benzodiazepines, and z-hypnotic drugs.

OBJECTIVE: Gabapentinoids (GPT) are reported to be increasingly misused by opioid- and polydrug-users, but the addictive potential of GPT outside of these populations remains understudied. Investigations comparing GPT abuse and dependence liability to that of other commonly prescribed Central Nervous System-acting medications are therefore warranted. We provide a comparison of GPT-abuse/dependence to that of other GABAmimetics within an elderly population. DESIGN: DSM-IV-TR-based data (previously prospectively collected by SKID-I-interview) from a random sample of elderly patients admitted to a metropolitan German general hospital were reviewed. The prevalence and severity of GPT, benzodiazepine (BDZ), and z-hypnotic drug (ZD)-abuse and -dependence were compared, stratified also by mono-substance (no concurrent current or previous substance use) and de novo-substance (first)-abuse and -dependence states. RESULTS: Among 400 patients (75 ± 6.4 years old; 63% females), neither current nor past abuse of BDZ, ZD or GPT, nor other illicit substances was observed. Dependence upon BDZ, ZD or GPT was observed among 55 (13.75%) individuals. The related lifetime/12-month prevalence-rates were: dependence condition (BDZ: 7%/2.45%; ZD: 4.25%/4.25%; GPT: 2.75/2.5%); mono-dependence condition (BDZ: 2.25%/0.75%; ZD: 1%/1%, GPT: 0%/0%); de novo-dependence condition (BDZ: 2.75%/1.75%; ZD: 1%/1%, GPT: 0.5%/0.5%). Opioid analgesic-dependence (N = 43/400) was significantly more frequently linked with BDZ than with GPT (p < 0.01) [Correction added on 29 December 2021, after first online publication: In the sentence 'Opioid analgesic-dependence…', the term 'and ZD' has been deleted]. For all three GABAmimetic classes, most mono- and de novo-dependence states were mild-to-moderate and lasted 2-6 years (median). CONCLUSION: GABAmimetic-dependence was usually mixed with other substance-dependences. Every third to fourth instance of BDZ- or ZD-dependence was a mono-dependence condition, while a pure GPT-dependence was absent in this elderly (and illicit substance-naïve) population.