Opioids for Persistent Pain: Using Opioids in Practice course
This is the second of two sessions covering the use of oral and transdermal opioids for persistent pain (also referred to as chronic, chronic non-cancer or long term pain). Opioids have proven benefit for treating acute pain and in palliative care [1], however, the use of opioid medicines in those conditions will not be covered in this session. This session covers the use of opioids in clinical practice including opioid trials, dosing, equivalence, switching, reviewing and tapering opioids.
Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Describe how to conduct an opioid trial and review the effectiveness of opioid analgesia
- State what is meant by opioid equivalence
- State the considerations to be made when switching opioids
- Explain how to taper opioids
Emma Davies has been an Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner in Pain for over 12 years. She provides primary care clinics which, although covering medication management, take a holistic approach to supporting people to live effectively with pain. In addition, she teaches, develops guidelines and educational materials and provides advice to the Welsh Government on pain management, as well as being a regular contributor to professional journals.
Co-founder of the livewellwithpain.co.uk website; Emma is also currently studying for a PhD, examining trends in opioid prescribing and healthcare resource utilisation in Wales.
- Anaesthesia | e-LA learning path: Aston University...
- Posted By eIntegrity Healthcare e-Learning
- Posted Date: 2026-07-19
- Location:Online
- This session outlines the main additional problems associated with anaesthesia for patients with four common major conditions; obesity, diabetes mellitus, renal disease and blood and coagulation disorders.
- Anaesthesia | e-LA learning path: Aston University...
- Posted By eIntegrity Healthcare e-Learning
- Posted Date: 2026-07-19
- Location:Online
- This session outlines the anaesthetic implications of common cardiac and respiratory diseases.
- Anaesthesia | e-LA learning path: Aston University...
- Posted By eIntegrity Healthcare e-Learning
- Posted Date: 2026-07-19
- Location:Online
- This session explains the importance of consent for anaesthesia and the practical issues of obtaining consent in different patient groups. It looks at the concept of informed consent and the provision of patient information prior to anaesthesia, as well a
- Anaesthesia | e-LA learning path: Aston University...
- Posted By eIntegrity Healthcare e-Learning
- Posted Date: 2026-07-19
- Location:Online
- This session discusses which tests may be useful before surgery, including the NICE guidelines. It explains why false positives will outnumber true positives for most screening tests in most populations, even tests that are 99 % sensitive and 99 % specifi
- Anaesthesia | e-LA learning path: Aston University...
- Posted By eIntegrity Healthcare e-Learning
- Posted Date: 2026-07-19
- Location:Online
- This session covers the pre-operative assessment and prediction of difficult airway, including difficult mask ventilation, difficult laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion, difficult laryngoscopy/intubation and difficult tracheal access.
