The Dangerous Side Effects Of Relying On Opioids For Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is one of the most excruciating health challenges anyone would face. It is suffered by mainly aging adults and can cause acute discomfort to anyone affected by it. Chronic pain is often associated with mental health and is primarily treated by psychological procedures. However, most patients who suffer chronic pain with severe symptoms usually don’t respond to psychological treatments. These types of patients have multiple treatment failures, noncompliance with various procedures and inconsistency on their mental order.

Most of these patients suffer non-malignant chronic pain, and one of the easiest ways to help them is by the use of opioids. Opioids where previously used for the treatment of severe depression suffered by cancer patients. The use of this method of treatment has so many clinical risks and is susceptible to medication abuse. This has slowed down the use of opioids for nonmalignant chronic pain.

How Efficient Is the Use of Opioids for The Treatment Of Chronic Pain?

Recent studies have shown that opioids are very useful for the treatment of chronic pain like painful peripheral neuropathy, low back pain, waist pain and even post-herpetic neuralgia. These researchers show that opioid acts directly against the causes of these pains and do not remove the effects of the pain.

Research has also shown that opioids are more useful in the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia than the use of tricyclic antidepressants. Opioids can also be used for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, connective tissue disorders, and rheumatoid arthritis.

What Are The Risks Associated With The Use Of Opioids For The Treatment?

Although the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain is very active, opioids are not the right solution as the dependence level of patients can lead to their death.

The abuse, misuse, and overuse of opioids will lead to significant dependency on the drug which causes the patients to develop dangerous behaviors such as forging prescriptions, stealing and even missing doctors meetings.

This is even worse for patients with a history of drug abuse. The use of opioids for treating patients with previous cases of drug abuse leads to greater dependency on the drugs. This further causes psychological maladaptation.

What Are The Side Effects of Using Opioids?

The most pronounced side effect that comes with the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain is constipation. The patient’s condition can further deteriorate to gastrointestinal motility.

These side effects have been pronounced, but research has shown that the continuous using of opioids can lead to cognitive impairment especially in aged patients.

These and many more side effects are associated with the use of opioids, many of which are yet to be clinically proven.  Current studies have shown that the use of opioids has relatively different effects on different patients.

Opioids can provide true relief for chronic pains; it can be used to help patients with non-malignant pain feel better. However, the risks associated with its use are far higher than it benefits.