Improvement of Pain and Function After Use of a Topical Pain Relieving Patch: Results of the RELIEF Study.

Purpose: Pain is the most common reason for patients to consult primary care providers. Identification of effective treatments with minimal adverse events is critical to safer opioid-sparing and multi-modal approaches to pain treatment. Topical analgesic patches target medication to peripheral sites of pain while potentially avoiding adverse effects associated with systemic medications.

Reduction of opioid use and improvement in chronic pain in opioid-experienced patients after topical analgesic treatment: an exploratory analysis.

Objective: There is a need to identify safe and effective opioid-sparing multimodal alternative treatment strategies and approaches, including topical analgesics, for opioid-experienced chronic pain patients to mitigate the risk of addiction, misuse, and abuse of opioids.

Methods: This subset analysis from a prospective, observational study evaluated changes in opioid use, other concurrent medication use, and pain severity and interference in opioid-experienced patients (OEP) treated with topical analgesics for chronic pain with measures obtained at baseline and 3- and 6- month follow-up.

Results: The 3-month opioid-experienced patient (3-month OEP) group included 121 patients who completed baseline and 3-month follow-up assessments; 27 opioid-experienced patients completed baseline and 6-month follow-up assessments (6-month OEP).

Changes in pain and concurrent pain medication use following compounded topical analgesic treatment for chronic pain: 3- and 6-month follow-up results from the prospective, observational Optimizing Patient Experience and Response to Topical Analgesics study.

Background: Opioids and other controlled substances prescribed for chronic pain are associated with abuse, addiction, and death, prompting national initiatives to identify safe and effective pain management strategies including topical analgesics.

Methods: This prospective, observational study evaluated changes from baseline in overall mean severity and interference scores on the Brief Pain Inventory scale and the use of concurrent pain medications at 3- and 6-month follow-up assessments in chronic pain patients treated with topical analgesics. Changes in pain severity and interference and medication usage were compared between treated patients and unmatched and matched controls.