Our study reveals that pregabalin is used for unlicensed indications and often when firstline drugs have not been trialed and suggests that better routines in diagnosis and prescription may improve treatment outcomes. Our study also provides novel information about the use of doses of pregabalin that are higher than recommended for patients with renal impairment.

Objective: To characterize the use of tapentadol and the combination oxycodone/naloxone in primary health care. Data on their use and possible misuse will allow the identification of risk factors and to design protocols to reduce and prevent avoidable harm to patients being treated for pain. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional and multicenter study was performed. Setting: Fifty-three primary health care teams, which provides healthcare for 1,300,000 inhabitants. Patients: A total of 1840 patients had active prescriptions of tapentadol and 985 of oxycodone/naloxone. Methods: Demographic (age, sex) and clinical (glomerular filtration rate; active liver disease; dosing and duration of treatment), prescribed daily dose (according to age, sex, length of treatment), concomitant analgesic treatment and diagnosis. Patient information was obtained from medical records. Results: Most of the patients were women (>74.0% in both cases), and the average age was 69.3 years (women: 70.1±13.2; men: 66.7±13.9 years) in the case of tapentadol and 70.6 years (women: 64.0±13.6; men: 72.6±14.3 years) in the case of oxycodone/naloxone. Only 12.2% of patients taking tapentadol and 12.1% taking oxycodone/naloxone had a normal renal function. In both cases, 4.1% of patients had active liver disease. The average length of treatment was 246.4 days in oxycodone/naloxone and 199.0 days in tapentadol. It was recorded that 85.1% of patients in the case of tapentadol and 89.0% in the oxycodone/ naloxone had at least another drug prescribed for pain. About 42.2% of patients treated with tapentadol and 34.4% of patients treated with oxycodone/naloxone had associated neuralgia as a diagnosis. Conclusion:The pattern of use and profile of patients with tapentadol and oxycodone/ naloxone had more similarities than differences, and suggested that prescribing practice, and monitoring should be assessed regularly to ensure patient safety and effective management of pain.

Background: The increase of consumption of the fixed-dose combination of tramadol/dexketoprofen in Spain and other countries is noteworthy. The authorised therapeutic indication is symptomatic short-term treatment of moderate to severe acute pain in adult patients.Objective: Describe the pattern of use of tramadol/dexketoprofen in the field of primary health care to examine potential off-label prescribing and warn about possible risks.Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional and multicenter study carried out between March 2017 and March 2018. Total population were patients covered by the public health service in Catalonia, Spain, with an active prescription of tramadol/dexketoprofen on March 28, 2018. Target population were those patients who were prescribed tramadol/dexketoprofen over 20 day’s treatment.Results: There were 176 patients with active prescription of tramadol/dexketoprofen. All patients (100%) had a treatment duration exceeding 5 days and 72.7% (N=128) exceeding 20 days. The average length of treatment was 224±160.8 days. 35.1% of patients were treated with >2 medicines for pain concomitantly with tramadol/dexketoprofen.Conclusion: Tramadol/dexketoprofen fixed-dose combination in practice was used frequently off labelled according to the product characteristics and the literature reviewed. This study highlights potential harmful or ineffective effects of this combination since no adequate evidence exists about its off-label use.