Nonopioid Medications for Chronic Pain: An AHRQ Update
The AHRQ evaluates nonopioid medications including NSAIDs, gabapentinoids, antidepressants, and cannabinoids for efficacy in treatment of chronic noncancer pain.
Recently the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) issued a report on the use of nonopioid medications for the management of chronic pain.1 The report was based on extensive literature reviews and sought to address 2 major questions regarding the use of nonopioids including:
1. Their effectiveness across a wide range of chronic pain conditions
2. Harms and adverse events associated with their use
The report offers several key findings with regard to the potential benefits of nonopioids for pain conditions for which the authors identifed sufficient literature to make recommendations on their use.
Those key findings are higlighted in the slide show below.
