Controlled-release morphine tablets in patients with chronic cancer pain : A narrative review of controlled clinical trials

✍ Scribed by Carol A. Warfield

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 143 KB
• Volume: 82
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19980615)82:12<2299::aid-cncr1>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

Background:

Controlled-release (cr) morphine tablets have become routine therapy in the management of cancer pain. compared with immediate-release (ir) morphine, this formulation provides the benefit of dosing every 12 hours.

Methods:

This study reviewed the 10 published, well controlled, repeated-dose, comparative studies with cr morphine tablets administered every 12 hours to patients with cancer pain.

Results:

Cr morphine tablets were uniformly effective; 98% of patients completed a treatment course of every-12-hours therapy. although the effective analgesic dose varied considerably from study to study (range, 90-330 mg per day), pain was well controlled with cr morphine tablets as the primary analgesic. mean pain scores, converted to a common 10-point scale, ranged from 1.1-2.9 across all studies. there was only occasional need for ir morphine rescue medication (range, 2-39 mg per day). the mean discontinuation rate because of side effects or lack of every-12-hours efficacy was 2%. in seven studies that used ir morphine as the comparative agent, cr morphine tablets were found to be equally effective as ir morphine.

Conclusions:

Twice-daily dosing of cr morphine provides convenient, safe, and effective relief of cancer pain.