Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use

The opioid epidemic continues to be a significant public health concern. On the surface, it appears difficult to understate the profound consequences and unnecessary loss of life at the hands of the opioid crisis throughout the 2010s. This reality should not dissuade rigorous attention toward those...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chahin, Michael, Matosz, Sabrina, Khalel, Irene, Day, Silas, Keruakous, Amany
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8666098/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34912639
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19500
_version_ 1784614139146010624
author Chahin, Michael
Matosz, Sabrina
Khalel, Irene
Day, Silas
Keruakous, Amany
author_facet Chahin, Michael
Matosz, Sabrina
Khalel, Irene
Day, Silas
Keruakous, Amany
author_sort Chahin, Michael
collection PubMed
description The opioid epidemic continues to be a significant public health concern. On the surface, it appears difficult to understate the profound consequences and unnecessary loss of life at the hands of the opioid crisis throughout the 2010s. This reality should not dissuade rigorous attention toward those who have suffered unnecessarily due to an overreaching backlash toward the opioid crisis. Oncology patients have been significantly impacted on both ends of the opioid crisis. Like other populations, cancer patients were first affected during the initial surge of opioid availability, prescription, and use at the beginning of the crisis, where opioid abuse and overdose negatively impacted cancer patient populations at similar rates as the general population. Yet, cancer patients were perhaps even more heavily affected during secondary events after the initial crisis, as opioid restrictions and the stigmatization, undoubtedly beneficial in many spaces, of opioid use became prevalent across the American society. During this second period of the opioid crisis (loosely from 2013 to the present day after the Veterans Health Administration Opioid Safety Initiative started), restrictions on opioids have significantly decreased the use and access of opioids for cancer patients. Management of pain, in general, is a complex topic, and cancer pain is no exception. Cancer patients may experience pain related to the disease itself, its treatment, or other comorbidities. This review aims to clarify the impact of reducing opioid use on cancer patients over the past eight years. We summarize the challenges facing providers as they attempt to manage cancer-related pain. Additionally, we propose tools for best practices to reduce the unnecessary suffering of cancer patients and protect against the overuse and abuse of opioids.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8666098
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Cureus
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-86660982021-12-14 Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use Chahin, Michael Matosz, Sabrina Khalel, Irene Day, Silas Keruakous, Amany Cureus Pain Management The opioid epidemic continues to be a significant public health concern. On the surface, it appears difficult to understate the profound consequences and unnecessary loss of life at the hands of the opioid crisis throughout the 2010s. This reality should not dissuade rigorous attention toward those who have suffered unnecessarily due to an overreaching backlash toward the opioid crisis. Oncology patients have been significantly impacted on both ends of the opioid crisis. Like other populations, cancer patients were first affected during the initial surge of opioid availability, prescription, and use at the beginning of the crisis, where opioid abuse and overdose negatively impacted cancer patient populations at similar rates as the general population. Yet, cancer patients were perhaps even more heavily affected during secondary events after the initial crisis, as opioid restrictions and the stigmatization, undoubtedly beneficial in many spaces, of opioid use became prevalent across the American society. During this second period of the opioid crisis (loosely from 2013 to the present day after the Veterans Health Administration Opioid Safety Initiative started), restrictions on opioids have significantly decreased the use and access of opioids for cancer patients. Management of pain, in general, is a complex topic, and cancer pain is no exception. Cancer patients may experience pain related to the disease itself, its treatment, or other comorbidities. This review aims to clarify the impact of reducing opioid use on cancer patients over the past eight years. We summarize the challenges facing providers as they attempt to manage cancer-related pain. Additionally, we propose tools for best practices to reduce the unnecessary suffering of cancer patients and protect against the overuse and abuse of opioids. Cureus 2021-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8666098/ /pubmed/34912639 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19500 Text en Copyright © 2021, Chahin et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Pain Management
Chahin, Michael
Matosz, Sabrina
Khalel, Irene
Day, Silas
Keruakous, Amany
Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use
title Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use
title_full Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use
title_fullStr Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use
title_full_unstemmed Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use
title_short Pain Management in Oncology Patients Amidst the Opioid Epidemic: How To Minimize Non-Medical Opioid Use
title_sort pain management in oncology patients amidst the opioid epidemic: how to minimize non-medical opioid use
topic Pain Management
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8666098/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34912639
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19500
work_keys_str_mv AT chahinmichael painmanagementinoncologypatientsamidsttheopioidepidemichowtominimizenonmedicalopioiduse
AT matoszsabrina painmanagementinoncologypatientsamidsttheopioidepidemichowtominimizenonmedicalopioiduse
AT khalelirene painmanagementinoncologypatientsamidsttheopioidepidemichowtominimizenonmedicalopioiduse
AT daysilas painmanagementinoncologypatientsamidsttheopioidepidemichowtominimizenonmedicalopioiduse
AT keruakousamany painmanagementinoncologypatientsamidsttheopioidepidemichowtominimizenonmedicalopioiduse