Authors: Jerome H Check, Brooke Neumann, Diane L Check.
Purpose: To describe a highly effective novel treatment for relieving pain from chronic pancreatitis even when high potency long-acting opioids fail to improve pain.
Methods: Dextroamphetamine sulfate slowly titrated to achieve the closure to a tolerable dosage that relieved severe abdominal pain was given to a 50-year-old male suffering from chronic pancreatitis that failed to respond to all medical therapies including high potency opioids.
Results: After one year with marked improvement of severe abdominal pain, at a dosage of 90 mg amphetamine salts (56.4 ng dextroamphetamine sulfate), he was almost pain free with only occasional use of amphetamines. Most importantly he was completely off all other medication for pain including his high dosage opioids.
Conclusion: Though dextroamphetamine sulfate has been reported to ameliorate various types of abdominal pain, and pain in other areas of the body, even when standard therapies fail, this is the first reported case of marked abrogation of pain from chronic pancreatitis. The hypothesized medicine is that dextroamphetamine release dopamine from sympathetic nerve fibers, which in turn diminishes cellular permeability, and thus inhibits absorption of irritants into pancreatic tissue causing inflammation and pain.
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