analgesic effect, different non-opioid drug and dosage regimens, and effectiveness in other conditions all warrant further investigation. March, L. (2015). "Review: In Osteoarthritis (OA) of Pain, function, Oral or transdermal The author describes the This paper is a summary of knee or hip OA, opioids knee or hip adverse events, opioids (other than review and the conclusion and commentary on the da reduce pain and improve symptoms of opiod tramadol) that compared with Costa et al (2014) Cochrane function but increase adverse dependence placebo opioids reduce review, which is included vs events." Annals of Internal pain and improve function above. Medicine 162(4): JC8. in patients with knee or placebo hip osteoarthritis, but increase adverse events. or The author comments that, no intervention while this is a well conducted systematic review, and the results seem encouraging, the median duration of the trials (4 weeks) is short while OA is a chronic disease with fluctuating symptoms. The author advises against using opioids for routine term treatment. Mkontwana, N. and N. Pain relief following Primary outcomes: Opioid analgesics, Cochrane systematic One of the studies included Novikova (2015) Oral section adequate pain relief non-opioid review of RCTs in the Cochrane review analgesia for relieving (reported) or >50% analgesics, (Bjune at al 1996) was a 13 studies were included caesarean pain. Cochrane pain relief combination drugs randomized double blind of which 8, involving 962 Database of Systematic (measured); need for (all versus placebo controlled single Reviews DOI: additional pain relief. oral dose study comparing the maximum single dose of
analgesic effect, different non-opioid drug and dosage regimens, and effectiveness in other conditions all warrant further investigation. March, L. (2015). "Review: In knee or hip OA, opioids reduce pain and improve function but increase adverse events." Annals of Internal Medicine 162(4): JC8. Osteoarthritis (OA) of knee or hip Pain, function, adverse events, symptoms of opiod dependence Oral or transdermal opioids (other than tramadol) vs placebo or no intervention The author describes the review and the conclusion that compared with placebo opioids reduce pain and improve function in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis, but increase adverse events. The author comments that, while this is a well conducted systematic review, and the results seem encouraging, the median duration of the trials (4 weeks) is short while OA is a chronic disease with fluctuating symptoms. The author advises against using opioids for routine treatment. This paper is a summary of and commentary on the da Costa et al (2014) Cochrane review, which is included above. Mkontwana, N. and N. Novikova (2015) Oral analgesia for relieving pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews DOI: Pain relief following caesarean section Primary outcomes: adequate pain relief (reported) or >50% pain relief (measured); need for additional pain relief. Opioid analgesics, non-opioid analgesics, combination drugs (all versus Cochrane systematic review of RCTs 13 studies were included of which 8, involving 962 One of the studies included in the Cochrane review (Bjune at al 1996) was a randomized double blind placebo controlled single oral dose study comparing the maximum single dose of term