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When Less is More: Why Chronic Opioids Are Not Advisable

As time goes on, we're starting to see some very nasty consequences of long term opioid usage. There's always the risk of addiction. To me, a person is addicted if abstaining from said drug results in withdrawal symptoms.  This can happen whether a person is using these medications for legitimate or recreational purposes. Beyond that, we are now seeing some of this patient population resort to heroin usage because it's much easier and much less expensive to obtain.




As if that's not argument enough, there is now some preliminary scientific evidence to support more conservative opioid prescribing. Animal studies at the University of Colorado performed an experiment in which laboratory rats underwent surgery to induce sciatica like pain.  Ten days after surgery, one group of rats was given a five day course of morphine treatment, while the other group was given saline. The saline group demonstrated signs of recovery in about four weeks, while those who received morphine began to show improvement in about eight weeks. Peter Grace, a neuroscientist involved in the study, says the results were surprising to the study team.

The study author postulate their findings as such: When exposed to morphine, the rat's immune system perceives the drug as a threat.  In response, the spinal cord underwent an inflammatory response--in essence, adding insult to the initial injury.  That is why they think it took longer for the morphine treated group to attain recovery.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

  • These are studies in rats. It's hard to know what these findings mean for humans.
  • Morphine was used in this study...further study is needed to know if all of the opioids would do the same...or not.

You can read more about this study by clicking here.

 Sources: iTechPost.com; ABCnet.au; ScienceNews.org; Wikimedia
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