Mst continus

What is the reason for opioids not being effective in treating cancer pain?

Opioids can be very effective for cancer pain in many cases, but they need to be prescribed correctly. All too often they are prescribed by doctors who have no training in pain control and don’t understand how to use them Mst continus .

Cancer pain is usually present all the time, but will be worse in certain situations, such as increased activity. Therefore the pain relief needs to be continuous, but with the possibility of taking an additional dose where immediate relief is required.

The way to establish the dose is to start with a short-acting preparation, such as morphine elixir 10mg, and to give it every four hours. Additional doses are allowed in between, and if 10mg is not effective then it should be increase to 20mg or possibly 30mg. Once the pain is mostly under control, the total amount taken in 24 hours should be noted, and an equivalent dose of a long-acting opioid can be prescribed, such as MST continus (this particular one is given every 12 hours).

Since it takes several days for long-acting opioids to reach a steady state in the blood, the short-acting opioid should be continued for at least 12 hours while the long acting one gradually takes over, and additional doses of the short acting one should be allowed as required.

COMMON SIDE EFFECT FOR MST CONTINUS

In this particular example, supposing that we find that 20mg of morphine elixir 4-hourly mostly controls the pain, but two additional 20mg doses are generally required. Then the total dose in 24 hours is 160mg, and the MST dose should be 80mg every 12 hours.

Once the person is established on a long-acting opiate, the dose should not be changed any more frequently than every 4 – 5 days, as it takes this long to reach a steady state.A common error is to prescribe a long-acting opioid such as Oxycontin when immediate relief of pain is required. This will not help the pain, and repeating the dose several times (which patients tend to do in this situation) will result in an overdose the following day.

Another common error is not to ensure that the analgesia is taken regularly and on time. The idea is that each dose should be taken before the previous one has worn off in order to achieve a steady level in the blood. If you wait for the pain to come back, then this is not effective analgesia.

A related error is not to allow “as required” additional doses.