Patients with chronic pain and dysphagia (CPD): unmet medical needs and pharmacologic treatment options

Background: For properly selected patients experiencing chronic pain, extended-release opioid formulations may represent an appropriate pain management choice. For the many adults, elderly, and children who have medical conditions that make swallowing solid, oral-dose formulations difficult (dysphagia) or painful (odynophagia), this option may be limited. The combination of chronic pain with dysphagia (CPD) presents a challenge to physicians and patients alike when oral opioid analgesia is needed to control pain, but patients are unable to swallow solid, oral dosage forms. Methods: A Medline search was performed (1990 to 2013) using the search terms swallowing difficulties, dysphagia, odynophagia, adults, pediatrics, elderly, chronic pain, pain, and opioids. The following websites were searched: American Dysphagia Network, Dysphagia Research Society, World Health Organization, American Pain Society, International Association for the Study of Pain, American Academy of Pain Medicine, and American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. Chronic pain guidelines from the following professional organizations were searched: American Pain Society, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, British Geriatric Society, European Society of Medical Oncology, World Health Organization, and the European Association for Palliative Care. Findings: There is an unmet medical need for greater recognition of dysphagia, awareness of potential problems with medication administration in these patients, recognition of alternative drug formulations that are available for use in CPD, and an appreciation that there are new, solid, oral-dose, opioid formulations in development that can mitigate these issues associated with swallowing difficulty while still providing practical, effective analgesia. Current pharmacologic treatments have limitations; new, prospective opioid formulations in clinical development may offer physicians and patients with CPD effective treatment options while mitigating accidental exposure and abuse liability. Conclusions: The number of patients with CPD may be larger than is currently anticipated by healthcare providers. Physicians should proactively include a discussion of dysphagia as part of the patient examination. CPD is an unmet medical need. There are novel opioid formulations in clinical development that address the limitations of current opioid treatments. This manuscript reviews the problems associated with dysphagia on medication administration and adherence, currently available treatment options, and opioid analgesic formulations currently in clinical development.