Sex differences in the response to opioids for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis

There are conflicting contrasting results about sex differences in the response to opioids for pain control and the role of potential influencing factors of these differences has not been investigated. We meta-analyzed differences and/or similarities between men and women in opioid response for pain control and investigated the potential influence of baseline pain intensity, age, body weight, and other factors in these findings. PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane CENTRAL were searched through January 15, 2019, for clinical studies in which opioids were administered for pain control through January 15, 2019. We included clinical studies in which (a) opioids were used to treat acute or chronic pain, (b) the response to opioids was broken down for men and women, and (c) the response to opioids was reported as (i) difference between baseline and final Visual Analog Scale of Pain Intensity (VASPI) score 30 minutes after opioid administration (Delta-VASPI at 30’), or daily dose of opioids, (ii) self-administered by patients (patient-controlled analgesia PCA), or (iii) administered by physicians. Risk of bias was evaluated using ROBINS-I and the overall quality of evidence for primary outcomes was evaluated using the GRADE system. Globally, we included 40 comparisons (6,794 patients). Regarding acute pain, we found moderate quality of evidence that women and men do not differ in their response to opioids 30 minutes after their administration [Delta-VASPI at 30’: mean difference, MD = 0.42 (-0.07; 0.91)]. We also found moderate quality of evidence that women self-administer lower daily amounts of opioids [daily PCA: standardized mean difference, SMD = -0.30 (-0.41; -0.18)]. Regarding chronic pain, we found low quality of evidence that women receive lower daily doses for non-cancer pain [MD = -36.42 (-57.86; –14.99)]. By contrast, we found very low quality of evidence that women and men do not differ in the daily dose of opioids for cancer pain [MD = -16.09 (-40.13; 7.94)]. Age, comorbid mental disorders, type of administration, type of opioids, type of patients, and body weight significantly modified these results. In conclusion, according to the results of the present our meta-analysis suggest that men and women may differ in the response to opioids for pain relief, but these differences as well as similarities are significantly influenced by factors like age and comorbid mental disorders. However, the role of these factors is not usually evaluated in the prescription of opioids for pain control. There is an urgent need to conduct clinical trials on the use of opioid medications for pain, in which information about all possible influencing factors are provided and broken down properly reported for men and women.