Methadone is safe for treating hospitalized patients with severe pain
Child; Female; Hospitalization; Humans; Male; Adult; Analgesics; Aged; Middle Aged; Analgesia; adolescent; Preschool; infant; Administration; Oral; retrospective studies; Pain/drug therapy; Pain Measurement/drug effects; Epidural; Methadone/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use; Monitoring; Opioid/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use; Physiologic
PURPOSE: Methadone is still regarded as a second line opioid for patients suffering from severe pain, and is rarely used in hospitalized patients. The infrequent use of methadone is probably due to its long plasma half-life that could lead to accumulation and toxicity. In the present study we report that clinically effective analgesic doses of methadone, given either epidurally or orally, can be used safely for prolonged treatment in hospitalized patients. Clinical features: Over a five-year period we administered methadone at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to 3,954 in-patients with severe pain, 12% of whom were younger than 17 yr. Satisfactory pain relief was recorded in more than 85% of the patients. None of the patients treated with oral methadone developed serious side effects. Three patients, treated with epidural methadone (0.09%), developed a clinically significant respiratory depression. In all three cases, epidural pump failure or pump misprogramming resulted in methadone overdose. None of the children or adults treated with methadone developed addiction during hospitalization. CONCLUSION: Based on its analgesic properties and marked safety profile, we suggest that methadone could be added to the analgesic armamentarium of in-hospital health-care providers. Moreover, methadone could serve as the opioid of first choice in some in-patient populations.
2001
Shir Y; Rosen G; Zeldin A; Davidson EM
Canadian Journal Of Anaesthesia
2001
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/bf03020377" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1007/bf03020377</a>
An update on the clinical use of methadone for cancer pain
Humans; Analgesics; Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support; Evaluation Studies; Administration; Oral; Neoplasms/drug therapy; Methadone/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use; Opioid/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use; Rectal; Palliative Care/trends
Methadone is a synthetic opioid agonist considered a second choice drug in the management of cancer pain. Methadone has a number of unique characteristics including excellent oral and rectal absorption, no known active metabolites, high potency, low cost, and longer administration intervals, as well as an incomplete cross-tolerance with respect to other mu-opioid receptor agonist drugs. For these reasons, methadone has the potential of playing a major role in the treatment of cancer pain. However, its use is limited by the remarkably long and unpredictable half-life, large inter-individual variations in pharmacokinetics, the potential for delayed toxicity, and above all by the limited knowledge of correct administration intervals and the equianalgesic ratio with other opioids when administered chronically. Recent findings suggest that standard equianalgesic tables are unreliable for methadone titration in patients tolerant to high doses of opioid agonists and that switchovers should take place slowly and should be personalized. Future research has to better define the variation in both bioavailability and elimination of methadone in different patient populations, the interaction between methadone and the most commonly used drugs in cancer patients, the type and activity of potential methadone metabolites, and the equianalgesic doses between methadone and the most commonly used opioids.
1997
Ripamonti C; Zecca E; Bruera E
Pain
1997
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3959(96)03286-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1016/s0304-3959(96)03286-1</a>
Methadone response in advanced cancer patients with pain followed at home
Female; Humans; Male; Pain; Pain Measurement; Analgesics; Prospective Studies; Middle Aged; Sex Factors; Neoplasms/physiopathology; Methadone/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use; Opioid/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use; home care services; Intractable/drug therapy
Concerns about the safety of therapy with methadone, which may arise because of its pharmacokinetic characteristics and inappropriate dosing, may deter clinicians from using this drug, especially in elderly patients. Experience is accumulating that the drug may be used safely and successfully if low doses are given initially and care is taken in the titration of the dose against the pain. A prospective study was carried out in a consecutive sample of 45 advanced cancer patients followed at home, who had never received other strong opioids for their pain. Patients were treated with an oral liquid preparation of methadone, which was administered 2-3 times daily, according to need. Doses were kept as low as possible and were titrated to achieve acceptable analgesia with minimal adverse effects. The methadone starting dose (MSD) at referral, the maximum dose of methadone (MMD), the days of methadone treatment, the use of other nonopioid analgesics, symptoms associated with methadone therapy, pain intensity, and pain mechanism were recorded. Methadone escalation index percentage (MEI%) and methadone escalation index in mg (MEI mg) were calculated from these parameters. No correlations between age and gender, and MSD, MMD, days on methadone, VAS and symptoms were found. No significant differences were found in pain mechanisms, age, and other parameters, including methadone-related symptoms. Treatment of pain with methadone provides important support to patients with cancer followed at home and the risks are low with individually titrated doses, even in older patients or in the presence of a neuropathic pain mechanism.
1999
Mercadante S; Casuccio A; Agnello A; Barresi L
Journal Of Pain And Symptom Management
1999
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/s0885-3924(99)00048-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1016/s0885-3924(99)00048-2</a>