Short-Acting Opioids Are Associated with Comparable Analgesia to Long-Acting Opioids in Patients with Chronic Osteoarthritis with a Reduced Opioid Equivalence Dosing.

Setting: There are no studies that exist within the primary care setting that address optimal opioid therapy in osteoarthritis patients. In light of the recently released US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on opioid use in chronic noncancer pain, there is a pressing need to better characterize the effectiveness of long- and short-acting opioids.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of short-acting opioids (SAO) vs long-acting opioids (LAO) and combination therapies (SAO and LAO) for treating chronic osteoarthritis pain in a retrospective trial.