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PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Stratifying patients based on a variety of factors including accounting for genetic and phenotypic factors may be a good way to determine whether a patient may be at risk for aberrant behavior related to opioid use, according to a poster presentation at the American Pain Society’s Annual Meeting, held here.
The data, presented by Proove Biosciences, focused on 162 randomly-selected patients with pain. Eighty patients had been diagnosed with opioid drug dependence, and 82 patients served as controls.
The patients were grouped into low-, moderate-, and high-risk groups, according to their Opioid Dependence Risk Index scores. These scores were based on a scale that predicted aberrant opioid behavior risk using both phenotypic and genetics.
The researchers concluded that an “ODRI score of greater than or equal to 13 is a good cutoff to predict risk of aberrant behavior to opioid pain relievers.” They also noted that the tool can be used to stratify patients who may be at risk for abusing, and may be used to help clinicians make appropriate prescribing decisions.
The poster was presented about two weeks after officials with Proove announced the launch of Proove’s Non-Opioid Pain Medication Response profile, which assesses 62 genetic variations to predict good versus poor responders and provide dosing information for commonly prescribed non-opioid pain medications.
“With the addition of this test, Proove now provides every prescriber of pain medication– the largest healthcare condition in the United States affecting 100 million Americans – with the ability to predict response before prescribing for the major opioid and non-opiod pain medications. This revolutionizes the nature of prescribing pain medications and brings us to a time when we can employ rationale decision-making rather than empiric prescribing,” Proove CEO Brian Meshkin said in a press release about the launch.
“At the end of the day, Proove provides proof to improve important healthcare decisions such as these. This proof saves lives, spares anguish, reduces pain, and limits costs to the healthcare system.”
According to the press release, the Proove Non-Opioid Pain Medication Response profile combines genetic predictions for enhancing efficacy and decreasing toxicity of a patient’s non-opioid therapy by combining genetic analysis of the target of drug action, modulation, and/or metabolism.
All of these factors — which are collectively called pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic factors — are important in determining the effect that a drug is likely to have, officials said.
