Change of quality of life in patients with chronic pain with prescription opioid usage after opioid detoxification.

J Opioid Manag

Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Republican Vilnius University Hospital, Toxicology centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Published: September 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • Managing chronic pain with long-term opioid therapy can be difficult due to complications like addiction and opioid-induced hyperalgesia, and information on detoxification protocols is limited.
  • The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific opioid detoxification protocol on patients' quality of life (QoL) and overall health, involving a retrospective review of 41 patients.
  • Results showed that after detoxification, 85.71% of the patients reported improved health status, with significant reductions in pain levels and higher SF-36 scores, indicating positive outcomes from the treatment.

Article Abstract

Background: Managing patients with chronic pain with long-term opioid therapy can be challenging for the prescribers, as the development of treatment complications such as addiction and opioid-induced hyperalgesia has to be considered. There is a paucity of information on the use of opioid detoxification protocols in patients with chronic pain on a long-term opioid therapy who have developed opioid-induced complications.

Aim: To determine the effectiveness of detoxification treatment while presenting a different opioid detoxification protocol intended to cease patient's prescription opioid use while assessing patient's quality of life (QoL) changes, implicated by our treatment.

Methods: We retrospectively studied 41 patients with chronic pain with long-term prescription opioid usage who underwent elective opioid detoxification in years 2010-2019 at the Toxicology Centre of Republican Vilnius University Hospital. We ceased prescription opioids during detoxification treatment and monitored withdrawal symptoms, pain intensity, and QoL by using SF-36 scores before and right after and a minimum of 3 months after detoxification.

Results: This study was fully completed by 14 patients. At the third SF-36 evaluation, 12 out of 14 patients (85.71 percent) reported the detoxification treatment as beneficial to their overall health status compared to that before the treatment, and SF-36 scores after detoxification were significantly higher than before the treatment (p = 0.001). A decreased pain level right after detoxification was indicated by 11 patients (78.6 percent). Significant pain decrease was observed both right after and at least 3 months after the opioid detoxification treatment (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: As significant pain reduction, QoL life improvement, and opioid usage cessation were observed after opioid detoxification in the majority of patients with chronic pain, this leads us to believe that such a treatment can be safely administered and appropriated.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.5055/jom.2022.0731DOI Listing

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