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Synapse
February 27, 2026DrugsOpen Access

Efficacy and Harms of Opioid Analgesics for Acute Pain: Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

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Authors

SMStephanie MathiesonJZJoshua R ZadroSNSujita W. Narayan

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Overview

Overview review shows opioids reduce pain in acute conditions, highlighting the need for careful harm assessment.

Key Points

  • The review aims to synthesize existing systematic reviews on the efficacy and harms of opioid analgesics for acute pain.
  • Conducted a systematic review of reviews from databases until March 2025.
  • Focused on randomized trials comparing opioids to placebo for acute, non-malignant pain.
  • Assessed quality using AMSTAR 2 and determined evidence certainty with GRADE.
  • High certainty that some opioids reduced acute abdominal pain immediately compared to placebo.
  • Moderate certainty that opioids reduced pain in dental surgery and myringotomy.
  • Oral opioids provided very small relief for acute musculoskeletal pain but increased adverse events risk.

Cite This Study

Mathieson et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69a134fbed1d949a99abe6f8https://doi.org/10.1007/s40265-026-02284-3
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