An evaluation of the validity of measureing salivary oxycodone concentrations for pharmacokinetic studies in patients

Funded Activity Summary

In many countries, oxycodone is replacing morphine as the opioid of first choice for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. Despite this, very little is known about how the drug is processed in the body or how its ability to control pain is affected by such factors as other drugs, age or organ function. Studies to determine this usually require multiple blood tests from individual patients over set time periods. Our team is able to measure drug levels in saliva and has shown this to be a valid substitute for the measurement of drug levels in blood. Furthermore, one of us has developed a computer modelling system that shows how drugs are handled in the body using only a few samples from each patient. Palliative care patients are generally frail and unwell. We are reluctant to expose them to invasive tests such as repeated blood sampling. If we can prove that saliva sampling is as good as blood sampling, we will have identified a simple non-invasive means of greatly increasing our knowledge of oxycodone and how it behaves in individual patients. This in turn may allow us to tailor drug doses according to the unique characteristics of each patient and to optimise their pain control.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2008

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Strategic Awards

Funding Amount: $49,135.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical biochemistry - amino acids and metabolites

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Cancer related pain | Chronic Pain | Opiods | Pharmacokinetics | Salivary sampling

Related Links