REVIEW
Opioid Metabolism

https://doi.org/10.4065/84.7.613Get rights and content

Clinicians understand that individual patients differ in their response to specific opioid analgesics and that patients may require trials of several opioids before finding an agent that provides effective analgesia with acceptable tolerability. Reasons for this variability include factors that are not clearly understood, such as allelic variants that dictate the complement of opioid receptors and subtle differences in the receptor-binding profiles of opioids. However, altered opioid metabolism may also influence response in terms of efficacy and tolerability, and several factors contributing to this metabolic variability have been identified. For example, the risk of drug interactions with an opioid is determined largely by which enzyme systems metabolize the opioid. The rate and pathways of opioid metabolism may also be influenced by genetic factors, race, and medical conditions (most notably liver or kidney disease). This review describes the basics of opioid metabolism as well as the factors influencing it and provides recommendations for addressing metabolic issues that may compromise effective pain management. Articles cited in this review were identified via a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed. Articles selected for inclusion discussed general physiologic aspects of opioid metabolism, metabolic characteristics of specific opioids, patient-specific factors influencing drug metabolism, drug interactions, and adverse events.

Section snippets

METHODS

Articles cited in this review were identified via a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed databases for literature published between January 1980 and June 2008. The opioid medication search terms used were as follows: codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, opioid, opioid analgesic, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and tramadol. Each medication search term was combined with the following general search terms: metabolism, active metabolites, pharmacokinetics, lipophilicity,

BASICS OF OPIOID METABOLISM

Metabolism refers to the process of biotransformation by which drugs are broken down so that they can be eliminated by the body. Some drugs perform their functions and then are excreted from the body intact, but many require metabolism to enable them to reach their target site in an appropriate amount of time, remain there an adequate time, and then be eliminated from the body. This review refers to opioid metabolism; however, the processes described occur with many medications.

Altered

Metabolic Pathways

Opioids undergo phase 1 metabolism by the CYP pathway, phase 2 metabolism by conjugation, or both. Phase 1 metabolism of opioids mainly involves the CYP3A4 and CYP2D6 enzymes. The CYP3A4 enzyme metabolizes more than 50% of all drugs; consequently, opioids metabolized by this enzyme have a high risk of drug-drug interactions. The CYP2D6 enzyme metabolizes fewer drugs and therefore is associated with an intermediate risk of drug-drug interactions. Drugs that undergo phase 2 conjugation, and

PRODUCTION OF ACTIVE METABOLITES

Some opioids produce multiple active metabolites after administration (Table 410, 11, 16, 17, 18, 28, 43, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60). Altered metabolism due to medical comorbidities, genetic factors, or drug-drug interactions may disrupt the balance of metabolites, thereby altering the efficacy and/or tolerability of the drug. Moreover, opioids that produce metabolites chemically identical to other opioid medications may complicate the interpretation of urine toxicology screening.

OPIOIDS WITHOUT CLINICALLY RELEVANT ACTIVE METABOLITES

Fentanyl, oxymorphone, and methadone do not produce metabolites that are likely to complicate treatment. Fentanyl is predominantly converted by CYP3A4-mediated N-dealkylation to norfentanyl, a nontoxic and inactive metabolite; less than 1% is metabolized to despropionylfentanyl, hydroxyfentanyl, and hydroxynorfentanyl, which also lack clinically relevant activity.82 An active metabolite of oxymorphone, 6-hydroxy-oxymorphone, makes up less than 1% of the administered dose excreted in urine and

ADHERENCE MONITORING: THE IMPORTANCE OF ACTIVE METABOLITES

Opioids that produce active metabolites structurally identical to other opioid medications can complicate efforts to monitor patients to prevent abuse and diversion. Current urine toxicology tests do not provide easily interpretable information about the source or dose of detected compounds. Thus, in a patient prescribed oxycodone, both oxycodone and oxymorphone will appear in toxicology results, but the urine test results will not establish whether the patient took the prescribed oxycodone

POPULATION PHARMACOKINETICS

Opioid metabolism differs with individual opioids in populations stratified according to age, sex, and ethnicity (Table 510, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 43). Reduced clearance of morphine,43 codeine,13 fentanyl,10 and oxymorphone18 has been reported in older patients. Oxycodone concentrations are approximately 25% higher in women than in men after controlling for differences in body weight, making it important for physicians to consider the patient's sex when prescribing this opioid.11 Chinese

Hepatic Impairment

The liver is the major site of biotransformation for most opioids (Table 4). It is therefore not surprising that the prescribing information for most frequently prescribed opioids recommends caution in patients with hepatic impairment.10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 43 For example, in patients with moderate to severe liver disease, peak plasma levels of oxycodone and its chief metabolite noroxycodone were increased 50% and 20%, respectively, whereas the area under the plasma concentration-time curve

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF MEDICAL CONDITIONS

The selection of an opioid analgesic may be affected by comorbidities and diminished organ reserve. Health care professionals need to be especially cautious when dealing with patients with diminished metabolic capacities due to organ dysfunction. In general, dose reduction and/or prolongation of dose intervals may be necessary depending on the severity of organ impairment. Moreover, clinicians should adopt a “start low and go slow” approach to opioid titration when hepatic or renal impairment

CONCLUSION

Patient characteristics and structural differences between opioids contribute to differences in opioid metabolism and thereby to the variability of the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of specific opioids in individual patients and diverse patient populations. To optimize treatment for individual patients, clinicians must understand the variability in the ways different opioids are metabolized and be able to recognize the patient characteristics likely to influence opioid metabolism.

Acknowledgments

Jeffrey Coleman, MA, of Complete Healthcare Communications (Chadds Ford, PA) provided research and editorial assistance for the development of the submitted manuscript, with support from Endo Pharmaceuticals (Chadds Ford, PA).

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