Opioid analgesics

Naloxone kit supply may have saved almost 1,400 lives in 2020, report finds

There has been a large increase in the uptake of take-home naloxone kits in Scotland, and the emergency antidote for overdoses caused by heroin and other opioids is likely to have saved many lives.…

How I reduced opioid prescribing in my GP practice by more than 450,000mme in less than a year

Deborah Hollywood set about creating a toolkit to reduce opioid doses for patients at her practice, with which she has achieved great success.…

How codeine metabolism affects its clinical use

A deeper understanding of codeine’s unique pharmacokinetic profile is required to ensure the best analgesic outcomes for patients.…

Coroner’s report recommends tightening regulation around forms of codeine and morphine

A report calls for opioids that are prescription-only medicines to be regulated as schedule 3 drugs, to make them harder to access inappropriately.…

How our multidisciplinary approach helped us reduce our practice’s high-dose prescribing by almost half

Senior GP pharmacist Rory Donnelly explains how his practice helped reduce high-dose opioid prescribing by an average of 40%.…

Opioid use in palliative care: selection, initiation and optimisation

Opioids are commonly administered as part of end-of-life care. Pharmacists should know how to select, initiate and optimise opioids to best meet patient needs.…

Misuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs to obtain illicit highs: how pharmacists can prevent abuse

An overview of the range of medicines that are being misused, diverted, or recorded on websites reporting new trends and experimentations of drug abuse for recreational purposes and how pharmacists can detect, understand and prevent drug diversion activities and drug-misuse adverse ef…

Healthcare professionals must warn patients of opioid dependence risk, advises medicines regulator

Healthcare professionals should warn patients taking opioids of their risk of dependence and addiction, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has advised.…

Buprenorphine implant beneficial for patients with opioid dependency

The benefits of delivering buprenorphine by subcutaneous implant, rather than by sublingual tablet, for the treatment of opioid dependence outweigh the risks, research published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine sugggests…

Pharmacists may need more comprehensive training in discussing opioid risks with patients, interviews reveal

Pharmacists need better guidelines, training and interventions to inform patients about the potential risks of opioid medicines, the authors of a study published in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy have concluded.…