Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

Cancer Pain Management, Second Edition will substantially advance pain education. The unique combination of authors -- an educator, a leading practitioner and administrator, and a research scientist -- provides comprehensive, authoritative coverage in addressing this important aspect of cancer care. The contributors, acknowledged experts in their areas, address a wide scope of issues. Educating health care providers to better assess and manage pain and improve patientsrsquo; and familiesrsquo; coping strategies are primary goals of this book. Developing research-based clinical guidelines and increasing funding for research is also covered. Ethical issues surrounding pain management and health policy implications are also explored.

This pocketbook summarizes the recent developments in this important and controversial aspect of pain management, looking at the benefits and adverse effects of opioids in non-cancer pain.

There is a great deal of interest in the effective use of opioids for cancer pain due to concerns from both clinicians and patients about addiction. When used correctly, opioids are capable of relieving pain in more than 90% of cancer patients. In reality, patients world-wide continue to endure pain usually due to irrational fears about using them. Fear of addiction is fed by outdated knowledge about opioids and the unintended effects of the war on drugs. However, new research shows that using opioids appropriately for pain management is effective, safe, and has an extremely low potential to produce addiction. This book provides evidence (on which guidelines can be based) from an international group of editors and contributors on opioids in cancer pain management, aimed at palliative care doctors, pharmacists, pain specialists, and oncologists. It includes information on opioid pharmacokinetics as a basis for understanding opioid analgesia, dosing schedule, polymorphisms of analgesic receptors in relationship to tolerance, and intrinsic efficacy. The main body of the book covers individual opioids. Topics within each chapter include structure, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, routes of administration, toxicity, drug interactions and influences of dosing and kinetics related to organ function. A chapter is dedicated to the WHO analgesic guidelines and opioid choices.

Pain is the most common symptom bringing a patient to a physician's attention. Physicians training in pain medicine may originate from different disciplines and approach the field with varying backgrounds and experience. This book captures the theory and evidence-based practice of behavioral, psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatments in modern pain medicine. The book's contributors span the fields of psychiatry, psychology, anesthesia, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and nursing. Thus the structure and content of the book convey the interdisciplinary approach that is the current standard for the successful practice of pain management. The book is designed to be used as a text for training fellowships in pain medicine, as well as graduate courses in psychology, nursing, and other health professions.

The second edition of a guide, which introduced a simple, yet highly effective method for the relief of cancer pain. Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition further refines the WHO method, which advocates the use of a small number of relatively inexpensive drugs, including morphine. Revisions draw on experiences with millions of patients around the world as well as new knowledge about the specific pain syndromes unique to cancer. Completely new are chapters describing the international system by which morphine and other opioids are made available for medical purposes. The book has two parts. Part one provides a practical guide to the relief of cancer pain, concentrating on drug treatment as the mainstay of pain management. The most extensive section sets out detailed guidelines for the selection and prescribing of non-opioid analgesics, opioid analgesics, drugs for neuropathic pain, and adjuvant drugs for the treatment of adverse effects, the enhancement of pain relief and the management of concomitant psychological disturbances. Information ranges from explanations of how specific drugs work, through the precautions to take in the presence of certain disorders, to a list of factors that influence the effectiveness of opioids. Concerning the use of opioids, readers are reminded that psychological dependence does not occur in cancer patients and that the only correct dose of morphine is the one that relieves the pain. Part two provides a guide to opioid availability. A discussion of the reasons why opioids continue to be underprescribed or difficult to obtain is followed by an explanation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

The opioid overdose epidemic combined with the need to reduce the burden of acute pain poses a public health challenge. To address how evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids for acute pain might help meet this challenge, Framing Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Acute Pain: Developing the Evidence develops a framework to evaluate existing clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids for acute pain indications, recommends indications for which new evidence-based guidelines should be developed, and recommends a future research agenda to inform and enable specialty organizations to develop and disseminate evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids to treat acute pain indications. The recommendations of this study will assist professional societies, health care organizations, and local, state, and national agencies to develop clinical practice guidelines for opioid prescribing for acute pain. Such a framework could inform the development of opioid prescribing guidelines and ensure systematic and standardized methods for evaluating evidence, translating knowledge, and formulating recommendations for practice.