Details

Butorphanol is an opioid pain medication. An opioid is sometimes called a narcotic. Butorphanol is used to treat moderate to severe pain. To make sure butorphanol is safe for you tell your doctor if you have any type of breathing problem or lung disease liver or kidney disease a history of head injury, brain tumour, or seizures heart disease, high blood pressure, recent heart attack or a history of drug abuse, alcohol addiction, or mental illness.

Typical Uses

Butorphanol is used to treat moderate to severe pain, including pain from surgery, muscle pain, and migraine headaches. Butorphanol is a narcotic pain reliever similar to morphine. It acts on certain centres in the brain to give you pain relief. Butorphanol can also block the effects of narcotics and can cause withdrawal symptoms in people dependent on narcotics. If possible, people who have recently used narcotics in high doses or for a long time should not use butorphanol.

Side Effects

Some of the side effects of butorphanol include weak or shallow breathing, slow heart rate pounding or uneven heartbeats problems with urination tremors, numbness or tingling severe dizziness, confusion, feeling like you are floating a light-headed feeling, like you might pass out or dangerously high blood pressure (severe headache, blurred vision, buzzing in your ears, anxiety, confusion, chest pain, shortness of breath, uneven heartbeats, seizure).

Drug Interactions

• Butorphanol+alvimopan- Using alvimopan together with butorphanol is not recommended. This can cause side effects such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. The use of alvimopan is discouraged if you have received butorphanol for more than 7 consecutive days immediately prior to alvimopan administration.

• Butorphanol+bupropion- Bupropion may rarely cause seizures, and combining it with other medications that can also cause seizures such as butorphanol may increase that risk. The interaction may be more likely if you are elderly, undergoing alcohol or drug withdrawal, have a history of seizures, or have a condition affecting the central nervous system such as a brain tumour or head trauma.

• Butorphanol+iohexol- Before you undergo any imaging procedure where iohexol may be injected directly into the spine let your doctor know if you are currently being treated with butorphanol. Injection of iohexol into the spine can sometimes cause seizures, and the risk may be increased if you are also using other medications that can cause seizures such as butorphanol.

• Butorphanol+naloxone- The following interaction applies only if you are taking naloxone in an injectable formulation: Using butorphanol together with naloxone can reverse the effects of butorphanol.

Mechanism of action

Butorphanol is a pain killer that belongs to a category of drugs called as opioid-analgesics. It works by binding to certain receptors that block certain nerves in the brain that are responsible for the sensation of pain.

Pregnancy Category : C