Journal
THORAX
Volume 73, Issue 1, Pages 88-90Publisher
BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-209868
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Society of Medicine
- Swedish Respiratory Society
- Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
- Scientific Committee of Blekinge County Council
- Wera and Emil Cornell Foundation
- British Heart Foundation [CS/13/2/30584] Funding Source: researchfish
- Marie Curie [MCCC-RP-15-A18859] Funding Source: researchfish
- National Institute for Health Research [DRF-2013-06-001] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The efficacy of low-dose systemic opioids for chronic breathlessness was questioned by the recent Cochrane review by Barnes et al. We examined the reasons for this conflicting finding and re-evaluated the efficacy of systemic opioids. Compared with previous meta-analyses, Barnes et al reported a smaller effect and lower precision, but did not account for matched data of crossover trials (11/12 included trials) and added a risk-of-bias criterion (sample size). When re-analysed to account for crossover data, opioids decreased breathlessness (standardised mean differences -0.32; -0.18 to -0.47; I-2=44.8%) representing a clinically meaningful reduction of 0.8 points (0-10 numerical rating scale), consistent across meta-analyses.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available