Opioid Analgesics Do Not Improve Abdominal Pain or Quality of Life in Crohn's Disease.
Matthew D CoatesN SethK ClarkeH Abdul-BakiN MahoneyV WalterM D RegueiroC Ramos-RiversI E KoutroubakisK BielefeldtD G BinionPublished in: Digestive diseases and sciences (2019)
Abdominal pain is common in CD and is associated with significant opioid analgesic utilization and increased incidence of anxiety/depression, smoking, and elevated inflammatory markers. Importantly, opioid use in CD was not associated with improvement in pain or quality-of-life scores. These findings reinforce the limitations of currently available analgesics in IBD and support exploration of alternative therapies.