Low-dose naltrexone (LDN) may be effective in the treatment of refractory chronic pain, early research suggests.
Preliminary data from a retrospective chart review of patients with chronic pain showed those who received LDN experienced significant improvement in both pain and disability.
Dr Kaivalya Deshpande
"Naltrexone has been studied especially in the setting of opioid and alcohol abuse, but we're seeing that at low doses, it has a paradoxical effect where it exhibits anti-inflammatory properties and it may be beneficial for patients with fibromyalgia or low-back pain," study investigator Kaivalya Deshpande, MD, a resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), told Medscape Medical News.
The results showed that with appropriate patient selection, "LDN could be an additional treatment option within the pain physician's tool kit," Deshpande said.
In addition, because the dose of naltrexone used to treat pain is so low at just one tenth of the actual dose used in addiction, the potential for addiction is low, he noted.
"With high-dose naltrexone, you definitely have some of those risks of addiction, but thus far, there hasn't been any documented abuse potential with low-dose naltrexone," he added.
The findings were presented at the virtual American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) 2021 Annual Meeting.
