CLEVELAND, March 22 -- Concerns that morphine or other opioids will cause respiratory depression when given to cancer patients for pain are unfounded, researchers here asserted.
During titration of parenteral opioids for relief of severe pain in various forms of cancer, there was no evidence of significant respiratory depression, as measured by end-tidal CO2, found Bassam Estfan, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues.
"Although 80% to 90% of cancer pain can be controlled with opioids, suboptimal pain control is common because under-prescribing remains a major barrier," the authors wrote in the March issue of Palliative Medicine.
Many clinicians are reluctant to use adequate doses of the drugs to alleviate pain, out of concern that aggressive use of opioids could hasten death or lead to other problems such as substance abuse, diversion of drugs to others, hemodynamic instability, CNS toxicity, and respiratory depression, the investigators wrote. http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/tb1/5305
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