7 / 14
Page 42
Notes:
Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine | ISSN: 2165-7386 | Volume 8
August 27-28, 2018 | Boston, USA
4
th
International Conference on
Palliative Care, Medicine and Hospice Nursing
Aberant behaviors towards Opioids
Sorin Buga
City of Hope, USA
A
berrant behaviors towards opioids Pain, whether related or not to a cancer diagnosis, can be addressed by multiple
medications where the opioids are considered to represent the gold standard approach in the management of cancer
and cancer treatment-associated pain. But the same opioids could cause euphoria by stimulating the brain reward system,
particularly the mesolimbic dopaminergic circuits, that could lead to various aberrant behaviors towards the opioids. The
aberrant behaviors should be of significant concern to prescribing physicians especially in the context of the opioid crisis
that we are currently experiencing in the United States. Therefore, it is imperative for clinicians to detect and monitor these
behaviors while striving to alleviate the suffering of their patients in pain. Concurrently, there is increased need to educate the
opioid prescribers to understand certain aberrant behaviors to avoid mislabeling of those patients as drug addicts when in
reality they are not and also to avoid increasing their already heightened psychosocial distress. This presentation will review
the definitions for various substance use disorders with a particular emphasis on the addiction, pseudoaddiction, and chemical
coping, behaviors that are intertwined yet differs based on the patient’s ultimate goal that is euphoria for addiction, relieving
non-pain symptoms for chemical coping and nothing else but pain relief for pseudoaddiction.
Biography
Sorin Buga MD is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope, Duarte, California. He is board certified in internal
medicine and hospice and palliative medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
He completed his fellowship in palliative medicine at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. He is the City of Hope’s representative on the NCCN Adult
Cancer Pain Panel and an active member of the American Academy of Integrative Pain Management, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine,
the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care and International Association for the Study of Pain. He has published in the peer review literature and
is often invited to speak at scientific meetings.
sbuga@coh.orgSorin Buga, J Palliat Care Med 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2165-7386-C3-020