Skip to main content

Sleep Apnea Associated With Chronic Opioid Use

Most people know about some of the problems with opioid usage: sedation, risk of addiction, impaired motor skills, to name a few.  In truth, there are more problems to add to that list. One of them is the risk of hypotension (low blood pressure)...and perhaps the most deadly side effect of all is the risk of respiratory depression, which can lead to death.


CPAP--a common treatment for sleep apnea




A review of literature conducted by Frances Chung, MBBS, and her coauthors reports that the overall prevalence of sleep apnea in chronic opioid users is 24%. The rate of sleep disordered breathing in this population is reported as high as 85%;  those who use higher doses (morphine equivalent daily doses of 200 mg or more) show a 92% rate of ataxic periodic breathing.

This reiterates the need for primary care and pain management physicians to be aware of this very serious problem.  In this way, the CDC guidelines helps to bring this issue front and center,  and that's exactly where it belongs.

You can read the original article here. You can read the Mayo Clinic's patient information on sleep apnea here.

Sources: PainMedicineNews; MayoClinic; Wikimedia


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living with Chronic pain hits the big screen!

Been to the movies lately?  Jennifer Aniston is on the big screen in a recent release titled "Cake." Her character, Claire is a victim of chronic pain...she belongs to a support group, where all of the members are coming to terms with the suicide of one of their members.  Of course, she also takes pain medication and addiction is another of her problems...and of course there's more! I guess I am writing this post just to bring readers' attention to the fact that Hollywood has become aware of the crisis that is chronic pain.  This movie is a testament to that. People that don't have to live with this kind of pain don't fully understand the whole story.  Maybe this movie will shed some light on the issues. Here is the official trailer for the movie: Sources: prweb;NorthJersey.com;YouTube
Post a Comment
Read more

Effectiveness Of Ozone Injections Is No Longer Up In The Air

Most of us know someone who has osteoarthritis, if we don't have it ourselves.  Joint replacement surgery is a pretty common remedy when the joint becomes severely damaged and the patient is in a lot of pain.  With risk of complications from such a surgery, perhaps an alternative treatment should be tried first. One such remedy is the injection of a synthetic version of collagen(e.g. Synvisc®) into the affected joint.  This procedure restores the cushioning to a joint that has degenerated over the years. It can diminish the pain substantially and help put off joint replacement surgery for months to years.  The biggest drawback is that these products are expensive.   GoodRX , a web site that can be used to estimate the cost of medications, estimates the cost of these products to be over $1,000 each. Here's another example--and I am not sure how widely accepted this protocol has become since study authors introduced it in November 2015.  Are you r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fibromyalgia Week: Day 2

Tender points...click caption for WebMD animation Tender points are a unique feature of fibromaylgia.  There are 18 such points on the human body (9 pairs as shown).  Using special technique by hand or a dolorimeter, a fibromyalgia patient will experience pain in at least 11 points, and there will be at least one painful tender point in each quadrant of the body! One study found that up to 96% of fibromyalgia patients suffer from sleep disorders. It is believed that this is responsible for a deprivation of delta sleep, during which human growth hormone is produced. This hormone is essential to tissue repair. Other common problems in fibromyalgia are fatigue, concentration/memory ("fibro fog"), and depression.  There is no doubt in my mind that just enabling the patient to sleep well on a regular basis would be of great benefit! It is not uncommon for fibromyalgia patients to have coexisting conditions--some of these are lupus, disease, irritable bowel syndrom...
Post a Comment
Read more