Therapeutic area
Opioid-induced constipation
Agent, daily dose and time to constipation: what two recent cohorts show
In a 2025 Japanese cohort of 63 adults with new weak-opioid exposure for chronic non-cancer pain, 49.2% met Rome IV criteria for opioid-induced constipation by day 14, while in an English hospital cohort of 80,475 adults without cancer, severe-constipation risk differed by agent and was highest at 50 to under 120 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per day.
Preventing opioid-induced constipation at opioid start: what 2024-26 data show
In a retrospective matched cohort of 536 inpatients with cancer, prophylactic laxatives showed no detectable difference in 1-week constipation (48.1% versus 48.9%; odds ratio 0.97, 95% CI 0.69 to 1.36); in a separate 99-patient randomized trial of one peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist, day-14 bowel function response was 64.6% versus 17.0% with placebo.