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A trial of sublingual buprenorphine in cancer pain.
Author(s) -
Robbie DS
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
british journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.216
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1365-2125
pISSN - 0306-5251
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1979.tb04706.x
Subject(s) - medicine , buprenorphine , analgesic , anesthesia , cancer pain , constipation , morphine , drug , cancer , surgery , opioid , pharmacology , receptor
1 Buprenorphine is a new antagonist analgesic which was offered sublingually to 141 patients with moderate cancer pain as an alternative to their current analgesic. These patients were not on regular strong morphine‐like analgesics. 2 Forty‐seven patients used the drug on demand in unit doses ranging from 0.15‐0.8 mg for an average of 12 weeks. A full‐time nurse‐observer was used throughout the studies. 3 Good analgesic results were obtained. Certain difficult chronic dull aching pains in the head and neck were especially helped by the drug. There was no indication of dependence or tolerance in this study. 4 The main side‐effect was drowsiness which lessened with usage of the drug. A major advantage of the drug was the absence of constipation as a side‐effect. 5 This sublingual preparation seems worthy of addition to the commercially available range of analgesics in clinical practice.