The Basic Pharmacology of Opioids Informs the Opioid Discourse about Misuse and Abuse: A Review.

Article Details

Citation

Pergolizzi JV Jr, LeQuang JA, Berger GK, Raffa RB

The Basic Pharmacology of Opioids Informs the Opioid Discourse about Misuse and Abuse: A Review.

Pain Ther. 2017 Jun;6(1):1-16. doi: 10.1007/s40122-017-0068-3. Epub 2017 Mar 24.

PubMed ID
28341939 [ View in PubMed
]
Abstract

Morphine and other opioids are widely used to manage moderate to severe acute pain syndromes, such as pain associated with trauma or postoperative pain, and they have been used to manage chronic pain, even chronic nonmalignant pain. However, recent years have seen a renewed recognition of the potential for overuse, misuse, and abuse of opioids. Therefore, prescribing opioids is challenging for healthcare providers in that clinical effectiveness must be balanced against negative outcomes-with the possibility that neither are achieved perfectly. The current discourse about the dual 'epidemics' of under-treatment of legitimate pain and the over-prescription of opioids is clouded by inadequate or inaccurate understanding of opioid drugs and the endogenous pain pathways with which they interact. An understanding of the basic pharmacology of opioids helps inform the clinician and other stakeholders about these simultaneously under- and over-used agents.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drugs