Low-dose morphine will soon be more accessible for the management of chronic breathlessness.
The PBAC has recommended extending the PBS-listing of morphine modified release capsules (Kapanol®) on the Palliative Care schedule to include restricted benefit listing for the treatment of patients with chronic breathlessness.
As reported in the limbic earlier this year, palliative care experts welcomed the prospect of an additional treatment option for their patients.
The PBAC considered that while the current evidence base to support the use of morphine for breathlessness in palliative care was limited, the Committee was satisfied that morphine provides, for some patients, an improvement in efficacy over conventional care particularly in patients with severe symptoms.
Professor David Currow, from the University of Technology Sydney, told the limbic in February that patients should be carefully titrated from an initial 10mg per 24 hours.