Buprenorphine has been used to treat chronic pain as an alternative to opioids for decades. Literature supports it as safer than class II opioids (Dala, 2021), and often more effective and provides more consistent pain control.
Patients have been finding themselves “stuck”. They have chronic condition(s) which they are prescribed opioids for. Rapid tolerance and escalation of doses are needed to achieve reasonable pain relief quickly develops, along with hyperalgesia, and so does the physiological and psychological addiction. Since the opioid crisis was announced and efforts to improve prescribing practices, reduce diversion and improve safety; these chronic pain patients have been slowly finding it harder to find care and a balance of quality of life, pain control and safety of dose. Harder to find providers to care for them and harder to maintain their daily prescribed dose of opioids.
We utilize buprenorphine products for chronic pain. This medication binds and reacts on the receptors to provide pain control. However, the interaction is different than with opioids on those receptors. Pain control is still achieved and without the hyperalgesia, frequent need to increase dose, and less frequent need for medication throughout the day.
Dalal S, Chitneni A, Berger AA, Orhurhu V, Dar B, Kramer B, Nguyen A, Pruit J, Halsted C, Kaye AD, Hasoon J. Buprenorphine for Chronic Pain: A Safer Alternative to Traditional Opioids. Health Psychol Res. 2021 Aug 6;9(1):27241. doi: 10.52965/001c.27241. PMID: 34746493; PMCID: PMC8567798.