PAINWeek Presenter Dr. Argoff on the Burden of OIC

Opioids are powerful analgesics, but unfortunately that pain relief may come with side-effects that place a heavy burden on patients. Patients may experience diminished quality of life due to opioid-induced constipation, leading to depression/anxiety, embarrassment, increased cost of healthcare, potentially leading to discontinuing use of the opioid.

PAINWeek faculty member Dr. Charles Argoff’s article in the Clinical Journal of Pain seeks to provide an “overview of opioid-induced constipation and its influence on disease burden and quality of life” and states that “health care providers should institute comprehensive communication strategies with patients to ensure OIC is effectively recognized and managed.”

Dr. Argoff will be presenting at the upcoming
PAINWeek Live Virtual Conference.
His courses: Go Ask Alice: Pain Management in the Older Adult; Patient Identification Strategies for Neuromodulation; and The Big Squeeze: Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy.
Click to register for the PAINWeek Conference!

Dr. Argoff’s review calls for “proactive counseling approaches between physicians and patients may help relieve some of the patient burden associated with OIC and lead to improved outcomes.” One avenue to explore, PAMORAs: peripherally acting µ-opioid receptor antagonists that “block µ-opioid receptors in the gastrointestinal tract without affecting the central analgesic effects of the opioid and thus provide a targeted approach to OIC management. Two PAMORAs, naldemedine and methylnaltrexone, have shown significant improvements in QOL based on the Patient Assessment of Constipation Symptoms questionnaire relative to placebo.”

 

Read the journal article.

Other Categories:

• opioid therapy

• opioids

• research/study