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Review
. 2019 May 16:12:1537-1551.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S190162. eCollection 2019.

Tapentadol for neuropathic pain: a review of clinical studies

Ulderico Freo  1 , Patrizia Romualdi  2 , Hans G Kress  3
Affiliations
Review

Tapentadol for neuropathic pain: a review of clinical studies

Ulderico Freo et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Neuropathic pain (NP) is an enormous burden for patients, caregivers and society. NP is a pain state that may develop after injury of the peripheral or central nervous system because of a wide range of diseases and traumas. A NP symptom component can be found also in several types of chronic pain. Many NP patients are substantially disabled for years. Due to its chronicity, severity and unpredictability, NP is difficult to treat. Tapentadol is a central-acting oral analgesic with combined opioid and noradrenergic properties, which make it potentially suitable for a wide range of pain conditions, particularly whenever a NP component is present or cannot be excluded. In randomized controlled trials, tapentadol has proved to be effective in relieving NP in diabetic peripheral neuropathy and in chronic low back pain. In observational studies, tapentadol reduced NP in chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathies, blood and solid cancers, and the NP component in neck pain and Parkinson's disease. This narrative review aims to provide clinicians with a broad overview of tapentadol effects on NP.

Keywords: neuropathic pain; pain therapy; tapentadol.

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Conflict of interest statement

UF reports personal fees from Grunenthal, outside the submitted work; HGK has received speaker’s and/or consultancy fees from Bionorica SE, Grunenthal GmbH, Mundipharma Int., TEVA ratiopharm, Mylan, and Pfizer outside the submitted work. HGK reports non-financial support from Grunenthal, during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Bionorica SE, Grunenthal GmbH, Mundipharma Int., TEA ratiopharm, Mylan, Pfizer, outside the submitted work. The authors report no other conflicts on interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic drawing of the dual mode action of tapentadol. Reproduced with permission from Chang EJ, Choi EJ, Kim KH. Tapentadol: can it kill two birds with one stone without breaking windows? Korean J Pain. 2016 Jul;29(3):153–157.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Means (± SD) of painDetect questionnaire score (PDQ) at pretreatment (solid columns) and after 3-month (densely hatched columns) and 6-month (lightly hatched columns) treatment with tapentadol for chronic musculoskeletal pain, across different age groups. **Different from baseline (P<0.01, 6-month PDQ vs pretreatment PDQ, for all age group; 1-way ANOVA and t-test).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Parkinson’s disease patients (percentage) who presented with nociceptive pain (open bars), mixed pain (hatched bars) and neuropathic pain (solid bars) at pretreatment baseline, and at follow-up assessment at month 3 and 6 of treatment with tapentadol.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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