%0 Journal Article
%T Opioid Therapy Pharmacogenomics for Noncancer Pain: Efficacy, Adverse Events, and Costs
%A Yan Xu
%A Ana Johnson
%J Pain Research and Treatment
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/943014
%X Chronic non-cancer pain is a debilitating condition associated with high individual and societal costs. While opioid treatment for pain has been available for centuries, it is associated with high variability in outcome, and a considerable proportion of patients is unable to attain relief from symptoms while suffering adverse events and developing medication dependence. We performed a review of the efficacy of pharmacogenomic markers and their abilities to predict adverse events, dependence, and associated economic costs, focusing on two genes: OPRM1 and CYP2D6. Data sources were articles indexed by PubMed on or before August 6, 2013. Articles were first selected after review of their titles and abstracts, and full papers were read to confirm eligibility. Initially, fifty-two articles were identified. Of these, 17 were relevant to biological actions of pharmacogenomic markers and their effect on therapeutic efficacy, 16 to adverse events, 15 to opioid dependence, and eight to economic costs. In conclusion, increasing costs of opioid therapy have made the advances in pharmacogenomics an attractive solution to personalize care with unclear repercussions related to the impact on costs, morbidity, and outcomes. This intersection of pharmacoeconomics and pharmacogenomics presents a unique platform to further examine current advances in clinical medicine and their utility in cost-effective treatment of chronic pain. 1. Introduction Chronic noncancer pain is a debilitating condition with high individual and societal costs [1¨C3]. Currently, the armamentarium of medications available to physicians in the treatment of chronic pain is restricted to nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), acetaminophen, adjuvants, and opioids [4], with few novel pharmacologic breakthroughs in the past 2 decades [5¨C7]. In recent years, population-based studies have demonstrated an increasing trend in prescription uptake of opioids among noncancer patients [8, 9]. A significant proportion of prescriptions to chronic pain patients consists of opioid medications [10]. During the time period encompassing 1997 and 2008, studies from the United States (U.S.) have shown that chronic opioid use in the general population ranges between 1.3% and 4.6% [11¨C13]. In a survey of pain management in 16 European countries conducted in 2003, Breivik and colleagues found that 28% of survey respondents used prescription opioids [10]. The countries reporting higher percentage of opioid use were no more satisfied with their medication pain control compared to those with lower prevalence of use [10].
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/prt/2013/943014/