Addressing The Barriers Related With Opioid Therapy For Management of Chronic Pain in India

Abstract

India has a high prevalence of chronic disorders which may be associated with persistent pain. Despite the availability of multiple treatment options, chronic pain is largely untreated and contributes to disability and mortality. Medical consumption of opioids remains low due to various barriers that prevent access to opioids for patients and healthcare practitioners. Stringent regulatory provisions outlined in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (1985) have been major deterrents to adequate opioid use. Although multiple amendments to the act have ensured ease of opioid access for medicinal purposes, concerns such as lack of awareness and prescribing practices and attitudes of physicians/patients still need to be addressed. This review aims to identify these barriers and suggest recommendations to overcome them.

KEYWORDS:

• chronic pain
• Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985
• opioids
• pain management

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/pmt-2016-0064

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was funded by Johnson & Johnson Pvt. Ltd., India. P Narang and J Ahdal are employees and/or shareholders of Janssen, India. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Padmini Deshpande (SIRO Clinpharm Pvt. Ltd.) provided writing assistance and Sangita Patil, PhD, CMPP (SIRO Clinpharm Pvt. Ltd.) provided additional editorial support for the development of this manuscript.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the development of the review. All authors met the ICMJE criteria and all those who fulfilled the criteria are listed as authors. All authors provided direction and comments on the manuscript, made the final decision about where to publish and approved the submission of the manuscript to the journal.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Johnson & Johnson Pvt. Ltd., India. P Narang and J Ahdal are employees and/or shareholders of Janssen, India. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. Padmini Deshpande (SIRO Clinpharm Pvt. Ltd.) provided writing assistance and Sangita Patil, PhD, CMPP (SIRO Clinpharm Pvt. Ltd.) provided additional editorial support for the development of this manuscript.