Chronic Pain Management during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review.
Érica Brandão de Moraes, João Batista Santos Garcia, Juliane de Macedo Antunes and 3 others
PMID 33390355WHAT IT FOUND
Only expert guidance and recommendations were found for chronic pain care during the pandemic, not tested patient outcomes.
It suggests telemedicine, pain-severity triage, infection precautions, and opioid precautions.
Key findings
01The review identified 13 pandemic-related publications, all consensus, guidance, expert opinion, statements, flyers or comments; no primary studies were found.
02The proposed workflow uses telemedicine, classifies patients by pain intensity into green, yellow, or red packages, and requires urgent cases to be screened for COVID-19 risk before face-to-face care.
03The review notes dose-dependent opioid immunosuppression, increased fentanyl patch absorption during fever, and that NSAIDs do not interact with infection except possibly masking fever.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
No primary studies were found; the included publications are expert opinions and recommendations. The proposed workflow is the authors' synthesis, not a tested service model. The review does not show that telemedicine, pain triage, or opioid precautions improve outcomes or reduce infection risk. It included only publications available during the early pandemic, so the evidence base was small and rapidly changing.
Declared interests
The authors declare no known competing financial interests or personal relationships.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the color-coded telemedicine workflow as proven care. The review found no primary studies and only expert opinions, guidance documents, statements, flyers, and comments.