widely prescribed opioid painkillers A new analysis published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine showed limited efficacy and increased risk of adverse effects.
This study looked at tramadol, a common prescription opioid used for treatment. chronic pain.
Tramadol has historically been recognized as a safer or less addictive opioid, contributing to its widespread use in chronic pain treatment, the study authors noted.
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“Often people use tramadol to avoid more addictive drugs like other opioids, but tramadol is actually a synthetic opioid. It’s much milder,” FOX News Senior Medical Analyst Dr. Mark Siegel told FOX News Digital.
In the new analysis, researchers used data from 19 randomized clinical trials involving 6,506 adults with conditions such as osteoarthritis, chronic low back pain, neuropathic pain, and fibromyalgia. All studies compared tramadol to placebo treatment.
Overall, the authors reported that tramadol slightly reduced pain, but the reduction was less than what is usually considered clinically meaningful.
“It is noteworthy how minimal the pain relief was and how clearly this study highlighted an increased risk of serious adverse events, even over a relatively short period of time. trial period,” Alopi M. Patel, M.D., a pain medicine physician at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told FOX News Digital (Patel was not involved in the study).
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Participants who received tramadol had an increased risk of both serious and non-serious adverse events compared to those who received placebo.
Mainly included serious adverse events cardiovascular eventschest pain, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, etc. The authors concluded that tramadol likely increases the risk of heart-related problems.
The authors concluded that the benefits of tramadol for chronic pain are small and the harms likely outweigh the benefits. This finding raises questions Use of tramadol They say it helps with chronic pain symptoms.
Most of the trials included in the analysis were short-term, with treatment periods ranging from 2 to 16 weeks and follow-up periods ranging from 3 to 15 weeks. The researchers acknowledged that this limits their ability to assess long-term outcomes.
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The authors reported that many of the results had a high risk of bias, which may exaggerate apparent benefits and minimize reported harms.
Although the trial included several different types of chronic pain, the data were not detailed enough to draw conclusions about specific conditions. This “makes it difficult to generalize the findings to anything specific.” patient population” Patel pointed out.
While the study has value, Professor Siegel said: “The idea that there is a small increase in the incidence of cancer or heart disease in people taking this drug is completely misleading because other factors were not controlled for and there is no evidence or hint of a causal relationship.”
“We first need to look at the underlying characteristics of the group that received the drug.”
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The doctor also noted that the study was “not comparable.” [tramadol] and complete opioid Like Percocet. ”
Experts stress that patients should not suddenly stop taking tramadol as it can cause withdrawal symptoms. Consult your doctor if you want to change your medication.
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“We encourage clinicians and patients to engage in transparent and shared decision-making that considers tramadol’s modest benefits and its risks,” Patel advised.
Fox News Digital has reached out to several tramadol manufacturers for comment.
