Pain Management in the Elderly: An FDA Safe Use Initiative Expert Panel's View on Preventable Harm Associated with NSAID Therapy.

Optimization of current pain management strategies is necessary in order to reduce medication risks. Promoting patient and healthcare provider education on pain and pain medications is an essential step in reducing inadequate prescribing behaviors and adverse events. In an effort to raise awareness on medication safety, the FDA has launched the Safe Use Initiative program. The program seeks to identify areas with the greatest amount of preventable harm and help promote new methods and practices to reduce medication risks. Since the establishment of the program, FDA's Safe Use initiative staff convened a panel of key opinion leaders throughout the medical community to address pain management in older adults (≥65 years of age). The aim of the expert panel was to focus on areas where significant risk occurs and where potential interventions will be feasible, implementable, and lead to substantial impact. The panel suggested one focus could be the use of NSAIDs for pain management in the elderly.

Improving the pharmacologic management of pain in older adults: identifying the research gaps and methods to address them.

OBJECTIVE: There has been a growing recognition of the need for better pharmacologic management of chronic pain among older adults. To address this need, the National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium sponsored an "Expert Panel Discussion on the Pharmacological Management of Chronic Pain in Older Adults" conference in September 2010 to identify research gaps and strategies to address them. Specific emphasis was placed on ascertaining gaps regarding use of opioid and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications because of continued uncertainties regarding their risks and benefits. DESIGN: Eighteen panel members provided oral presentations; each was followed by a multidisciplinary panel discussion. Meeting transcripts and panelists' slide presentations were reviewed to identify the gaps and the types of studies and research methods panelists suggested could best address them. RESULTS: Fifteen gaps were identified in the areas of treatment (e.g., uncertainty regarding the long-term safety and efficacy of commonly prescribed analgesics), epidemiology (e.g., lack of knowledge regarding the course of common pain syndromes), and implementation (e.g., limited understanding of optimal strategies to translate evidence-based pain treatments into practice). Analyses of data from electronic health care databases, observational cohort studies, and ongoing cohort studies (augmented with pain and other relevant outcomes measures) were felt to be practical methods for building an age-appropriate evidence base to improve the pharmacologic management of pain in later life. CONCLUSION: Addressing the gaps presented in the current report was judged by the panel to have substantial potential to improve the health and well-being of older adults with chronic pain.