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Treating Chronic Pain with Buprenorphine—The Practical Guide

  • Palliative and Supportive Care (MP Davis, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Buprenorphine has unique and favorable pharmacological properties that make it useful in a variety of clinical scenarios. It has been recommended to consider buprenorphine first-line opioid for chronic pain, especially in the elderly as it may be associated with less cognitive impairment, falls, sexual dysfunction, and sarcopenia when compared with schedule II opioids. It may be useful in patients with comorbid substance use disorder or non-medical opioid use, as there is less risk of misuse, euphoria and it may improve mood. When used to treat opioid use disorder, the training and waiver was recently waived for licensed practitioners with a DEA and any provider may prescribe buprenorphine. For many reasons outlined in this article, the popularity of using buprenorphine for analgesia continues to grow and a practitioner should consider this as an excellent and safe option for chronic pain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lee Foundation Endowed Chair Supportive and Palliative Care, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Amy A. Case

  2. Palliative Medicine Clinical Pharmacy, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, James Cancer Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Justin Kullgren

  3. Supportive Care, Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Sidra Anwar

  4. Palliative Care, Sibley Memorial Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine, Washington, DC, USA

    Sandra Pedraza

  5. Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA

    Mellar P. Davis

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Case, A.A., Kullgren, J., Anwar, S. et al. Treating Chronic Pain with Buprenorphine—The Practical Guide. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 22, 116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-021-00910-8

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