Methadone dose escalation in patients with opioid use disorder and cancer as a strategy for controlling cancer-related pain: A case series.
Palliat Support Care
; : 1-4, 2023 Oct 03.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37786362
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Opioid use disorder (OUD) and cancer gained attention as co-occurring diseases in the last 2 decades due to the possible relationship between opioid prescriptions for cancer pain and the risk of developing substance use disorder in cancer patients. However, little is known about patients previously diagnosed with OUD who develop cancer and how to manage both OUD symptoms and control pain.METHODS:
The present case series deals with this subpopulation and proposes a dose escalation of methadone to control both the cancer-related pain and drug addiction symptoms.RESULTS:
This approach is peculiar because methadone is not used as a first-line treatment in cancer pain management and is not often used as a second-line treatment as well. Our 4 patients experienced good clinical control of symptoms and no major adverse reactions. SIGNIFICANCE OFRESULTS:
The subgroup of patients with OUD who develop cancer could be the perfect population to reconsider the use of methadone as a first-line treatment for cancer pain. Prospective studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of increasing doses of methadone in these patients to validate our clinical approach.
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudio:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Idioma:
En
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article