No abstract

The consumption of opioid analgesics has increased drastically in the last decades worldwide. This high consumption is linked with a surge in the number of opioid prescriptions for the treatment of chronic pain and a surge in opioid misuse and addiction. Opioid analgesics have a short duration of action, making necessary frequent administrations to provide extended analgesia. The use of prolonged-release formulations enables dosing intervals to be spaced out and drug blood levels to be stabilized, improving therapeutic compliance, and reducing the likelihood of developing addiction. However, these formulations contain higher doses of opioid analgesics which make them more susceptible to be manipulated. Hence, the most recent advances in pharmaceutical technology have been oriented towards the application of abuse deterrent technologies aiming to prevent their administration through alternative routes. Moreover, prolonged- release systems also play an essential role in the treatment of opioid addictions with the development of parenteral dosage forms capable of prolonging opioid release for months that help overcome one of the most important drawbacks in achieving treatment success, namely, patient compliance. We review herein the different prolonged-release opioid dosage forms currently approved in Europe and/or the United States for the treatment of pain and opioid dependence.