A review of morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide's pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationships in experimental and clinical pain

Eva Sverrisdóttir, Trine Meldgaard Lund, Anne Estrup Olesen, Asbjørn Mohr Drewes, Lona Louring Christrup, Mads Kreilgaard

    53 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Morphine is a widely used opioid for treatment of moderate to severe pain, but large interindividual variability in patient response and no clear guidance on how to optimise morphine dosage regimen complicates treatment strategy for clinicians. Population pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models can be used to quantify dose-response relationships for the population as well as interindividual and interoccasion variability. Additionally, relevant covariates for population subgroups that deviate from the typical population can be identified and help clinicians in dose optimisation. This review provides a detailed overview of the published human population pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic studies for morphine analgesia in addition to basic drug disposition and pharmacological properties of morphine and its analgesic active metabolite, morphine-6-glucuronide, that may help identify future covariates. Furthermore, based on simulations from key pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models, the contribution of morphine-6-glucuronide to the analgesic response in patients with renal insufficiency was investigated. Simulations were also used to examine the impact of effect-site equilibration half-life on time course of response. Lastly, the impact of study design on the likelihood of determining accurate pharmacodynamic parameters for morphine response was evaluated.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalEuropean Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
    Volume74
    Pages (from-to) 45–62
    Number of pages8
    ISSN0928-0987
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 10 Jul 2015

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