Opioid Induced Constipation

The definitions of constipation include a reference to infrequent, difficult or incomplete bowel evacuation that may lead to pain and discomfort; with stools that can range from small, hard ’rocks’, to a large bulky mass. Constipation may be debilitating among those who require chronic analgesia (7); OIC or OBD affected an average of 41 % patients taking an oral opioid for up to 8 weeks in a meta-analysis of 11 placebo-controlled, randomized studies in non-malignant pain (14). In a survey of patients taking opioid therapy for pain of non-cancer origin, who required laxative therapy, only 46 % of opioid-treated patients reported achieving the desired treatment results > 50 % of the time, in contrast to the reported satisfaction in 84 % of control subjects (8).