Sustained Release Opioid Found Safe for the Elderly

A study has shown that a sustained-release morphine sulfate pain treatment is well tolerated and effective for controlling chronic, noncancer-related pain in the elderly. The results were presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine in Orlando (FL, USA) in March 2004.

The study involved 103 elderly patients, who showed decreased pain intensity and sleep disturbance with once-daily dosing of the morphine sulfate treatment, called Kadian, over a four-week period. All of the patients had a history of unsuccessful pain management.

As many as 85% of older adults suffer from significant health problems that predispose them to pain, including vascular disease, neurologic degenerative conditions, shingles, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The elderly are prescribed pain medications about three times more frequently than the general population and have poorer compliance with directions for use, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In addition, age-related physiologic changes make it difficult for doctors to predict the efficacy and safety of pain therapy.

"Complex dosing schedules are hard for the elderly to manage,” said principal investigator John Sasaki, M.D., director of pain management at Casa Colina Hospital (Pomona, CA, USA). "Because Kadian can be administered only once a day and has a low incidence of side effects, it's an important option for treating elderly patients with chronic pain.”




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