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BreatheMOR: Morphine for the relief of breathlessness in stable chronic heart failure

People Involved

Project Description

Opioids have been used for centuries to relieve pain and other symptoms. A meta-analysis in 2002 of eight randomised controlled trials (RCTs) showed that opioids had a clinically relevant beneficial effect on dyspnoea in people with mainly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or cancer, but few of these studies included people with chronic heart failure (CHF)(1). Chronic refractory dyspnoea despite optimal cardiac management remains a common and distressing problem for people with advanced CHF, and their carers. It leads to prolonged and heavy use of NHS resources, including unscheduled hospital admission. To our knowledge there are no other substantive pharmacological studies primarily directed at the relief of chronic refractory dyspnoea in people with CHF other than those below conducted by members of our research collaboration and it remains a seriously under-researched area.

Type of Project Project
Project Acronym BreatheMOR
Status Project Complete
Funder(s) British Heart Foundation
Value £299,581.00
Project Dates Oct 1, 2013 - Feb 28, 2019

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