Pain management: is opioid immunosuppression a clinical problem?

For more than 100 years, the use of opioid analgesic agents has been linked with modulation of the immune system in man. More recently, it has become apparent that both exogenous and endogenous opioids exert some effect upon the immune system but that this can be beneficial or deleterious depending on numerous variables. Of the strong opioid analgesics in current use, the majority are seen to cause immunosuppression in man. However, it still remains unclear whether this is clinically important in man although it would appear to be good practice to avoid such agents in patients already immunosuppressed by disease or pharmacotherapy. Powerful opioid analgesics without immunosuppressive properties can be selected and should be used in such situations and as these agents can offer additional benefits in addition to their non-immunosuppresive analgesia, it should be considered whether to use them at all times in preference to immunosuppressive opioids.