ArticleDrugs & aging2026
Opioid Use in Older Adults with Cancer Pain Admitted to an Acute Palliative Care Unit: Does Age Matter? A Secondary Analysis.
Article in Drugs & aging, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCancer pain in older adults presents unique management challenges because of age-related pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes. Data on age-stratified opioid prescribing within acute palliative care units remain scarce.
objectiveWe aimed to evaluate the influence of age on opioid dosing, drug selection, and breakthrough pain management in patients with advanced cancer admitted to an acute palliative care unit.
methodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study conducted over 5 months. Patients were stratified into three cohorts: adults (A, aged <65 years), young-old (O, aged 65-75 years), and old-old (OO, aged >75 years). Opioid doses, expressed as oral morphine equivalents (mg/24 h), drug choice, and route of administration were recorded at admission, at each opioid prescription change, and at discharge. Kruskal-Wallis tests with pairwise post hoc comparisons using Holm correction and Friedman tests were used for between- and within-group analyses, respectively.
resultsOne-hundred and thirteen patients were analyzed (A: n = 46, O: n = 43, OO: n = 24). No significant differences in oral morphine equivalents were observed at admission (p = 0.177). Significant between-group differences emerged from the first opioid prescription (p = 0.007), persisted at the second prescription (p = 0.026), and were most pronounced at discharge (p < 0.001). Pairwise post hoc comparisons consistently showed higher oral morphine equivalent doses in adults than in both geriatric age groups, whereas no significant differences were observed between the young-old and oldest-old groups. Methadone was used predominantly in adults. At the first breakthrough pain prescription, adults also received significantly higher rescue oral morphine equivalent doses than the two older groups (p < 0.05). Pain intensity significantly improved from admission to discharge in all three age groups, with no significant between-group differences observed either at admission or at discharge.
conclusionsAge was associated with clinically significant differences in opioid prescribing within the acute palliative care unit. Compared with patients aged ≥65 years, adults aged <65 years received higher opioid doses and more complex opioid regimens, whereas prescribing patterns were similar in the two geriatric age groups. Despite age-related differences in opioid prescribing, comparable pain control was achieved across all age groups (see Table 1 and Results), supporting individualized age-tailored opioid titration in specialist palliative care.
Identifiers
42853544What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.