Chronic Pain Meds Unlikely to Cause Addiction
The general population and many in the medical community alike harbor the popular opinion that using strong pain medications, including opioids, for long-term, chronic pain puts the patient at high risk of developing an addiction to the pain medications. A report presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Pain Society (APS) reveals evidence to the contrary.
Srinivasa Raja, MD, a professor of anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, reports that less than 3% of all patients suffering from chronic pain and who have no history of abusing drugs of any kind may eventually show signs of dependence or abuse when taking these medications pain relief. He urged the medical community to keep this very small percentage of risk in mind when establishing policies for prescribing such medications to patients who are far more likely to benefit from them than be endangered by them.
Raja also points to media attention surrounding an increase in the abuse of such medications but says these drugs are easily obtained from unregulated internet pharmacies and through theft and forgery of prescriptions, not just from within the legitimate medical establishment. While the established medical community is not the sole source of supply for these medications, Raja urges diligent communication between physician and patient, with patient screening procedures to identify addictive or potentially abusive behaviors becoming a routine part of the prescription and follow-up phases of treatment.
Raja further calls for uniformity in state and federal drug regulations and praises the teen drug awareness campaigns underway across the country as a means of preventing abuse of this type of drug. Raja says collaboration from the healthcare community, law enforcement agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry is needed to ensure people who need them will be allowed continued access to these medications, especially in the many cases where the benefits far exceed the risk of dependency.
Alternative treatments such as cognitive behavior and physical therapies should be used to supplement pain medications whenever possible, according to Raja. He says using this multi-faceted approach to pain management is much more effective than relying only on pain medications as the sole means of relief in most cases.
In his address to the APS, Raja cited past beliefs about pain that have been disproved by scientific evidence, such as that babies didn’t feel pain and therefore didn’t need anesthesia and that cancer patients should eschew the most potent and effective pain medications due to the supposed risk of addiction. These outdated beliefs have been proven wrong and he feels the fear of addiction should be abandoned as well in favor of effective treatment for pain management without the stigma of potential addiction influencing treatment options.
Source: American Pain Society
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I have taken opioids to help deal with transformed chronic daily headpain/migraines for 14+ years, with no signs of addiction at all. I do “depend” on them, much as a diabetic might depend on insulin to control some of the symptoms of their disease. These opioids, along with a whole set of preventives, abortives and maintenance meds, keep the worst symptoms of my migraines somewhat at bay.
I’ve been chonic pain for years now ,Finally I got meds that pertain too my pain.
I have chronic ostearthritis pain and deteriorating ostearthritis and Disc desease and fibro.
I need operation because the ostearthritis is growing like fingers around my spine.
I hurt every minute of the day.I just wish I could sleepall the time,So Iwouldn’t feel the pain.
And I have a hard time to get my pain meds.
People don;t understand when your in horrible nerve pain. You need a real strong pain med to even get a small amount of pain relieve.
I’m tired of people looking at me like ,I’m a drug adddit.
please let the blood test go threw to some how much medicine we need .
When your on pain for years and take them like prescripts you won’t get addicted.
I’m more afraid of gettting liver cancer from taking aspirin . than getting addicted to a better pain med.
I have been in chronic pain all of my adult life and like others I would go to the E.R. when there was so much pain from taking nsaids.They did more damage to my stomach and also they can damage your liver.A lot of people including the medical personnel have not been educated to this fact that if you are taking prescribed opioids.They really only mildly in some cases just take the edge off.I have done everything in the last 20 years that any and all types of doctors have suggested.I have done it without pain meds and with,With is better for me.But it doesn’t stop there,We need each of us a certain recipe for medications.Everybody is differerent.I think that what ever works for an individual is what that person has to go with,Fibro is at the cellular level.That means eyes,skin,muscles,bone,numbness in the hands,shooting pains.Pains that I cannot even understand.Sometimes I feel like I am being burned by cigarettes.I have done a lot of research and read atleast a dozen books on the diagnosis I have.I have Fibro,Myofascail pn syndrome,IBS,Arthritic knees,depression,severe sleep apnea.At first I was terrified to have the first opiod rx filled.I had heard so many horror stories.I was told I was going to get ‘hooked’ on drugs as the public likes to put it.I can take a lot of pain.It seems like when I take my meds they run right through me.As if my body does not utiliize them.I stayed on a certain mgs for years without increasing.Then it was discovered that I had 8 herniated disc.There are so many things I cannot do.My neck hurts so badly that I have to lay down to watch t.v.I can no longer read because my arms and neck start throbbing.I have found and have been using a wonderful pain mang. doctor who does all of his injections with you under anesthesia.Not all pain clinics are good..One I went to told me to bend over the table for an epidural.I asked him what kind of anesthesia he was going to use.He said he didn’t believe in it or pain medication.Folks let you feet do the walking when a so called pain specailist goal is to take all of your rx away.And what if I moved when he pushed a needle into my spine.What if I jerked and ended up with a damaged nerve.I literally have been thru it all.Did you know that suicide is the leading cause of death for Fibro.When your body is in pain 24/7,it uses up all of your brains own endomorphines and seratonins.That puts you into clinical depression.And sometimes the mental part is far worse than the pain.I asked my psychiatrist if I was addicted to these meds.He said if you take meds for any other reason than pain,then no you arent.Ofcourse you cannot suddenly stop either because your body must be weaned off .As Jan said about insulin.I wish I had a lot more room to talk about what I have been through.I want to thank the American Pain Foundation for their support.Sincerely keep up the good work.I would love to write more.I have not even glazed the surface.Thanks for allowing me to comment..I am at this time going through 8 different referrals.Not all for the same thing.It is overwhelming and I am tired of being treated like a drug addict.I am just as ill as someon with cancer.Why is it that they will gladly give you pain meds if you are terminal.Instead they want to give you nothing of what may be the next 20 or 30 years of your life.Where is the quality of life for them to see that they are just giving us a jail sentence os unbearable pain for the rest of our lives.Pattie Liddell
I would like to go on to say that I have been very concervative with my medications.But it has cost me relationships.And they are usually the ones you would never have believed.Help usually comes from a stranger than can identify with what you are going through.I also have panic atttacks.I have agoraphobia.I tremble taking mail out of the mailbox.I am lonely but too ill to seek out other people’s company.And I want to see my grandchildren with all my heart but after a couple of hours I am shaking from the loud sounds.Did you know that our brains interperate light and sound as pain.It is so true.If you would read books ‘Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome,a Survivros Handbook by Devin Starlanyl and Mary Ellen Copeland you will get a lot of good information.So far they have written 3 books.To even help you advocate for yourself and tell you how to go about getting help that you are legally obliged to receive.But we have been beaten down by our friends and family that we no longer have any self esteem left.We try what is referred to as the Good Sport Syndrome.Which means we go along with the family outing and pretend we aren’t sick and then we spend weeks in bed recovering from torn muscles and ligaments.Friends,I have a daughter that is in the medical field and she is ashamed of me.She thinks if I would just try harder I would feel much better..I have gone to couseling with her and done everything I can think of to make her understand why I can’t be at the beach at 7:30 in the morning if I want to see my grandchildren.If I were a good grandmother I would do this.We have had this go on for the last ten years.My grandchildren aren’t allowed to spend the night with us because we smoke cigatettes and are drug addicts in her opinion.Even when we said we would not smoke while they were here.The more I try, the harder she makes it on me.She makes it so hard that when I meet one demand an even harder one is put up.This relationship is my child who never spoke back to me a day in her life.She wants the old mom back.Well guess what.Old mom is now sick and a lot older.She will not even read this when I email it to her.She has made up her mind that she is right and anything else that is written is bunk as far as she is concerned.That is a pain that will never go away.I am blessed with a wonderful husband who helps with the cooking,cleaning.vacuuming,etc…And he is 8 years younger than me.But he lives with me and he sees that in the last 11 years that I have been unable to work that I try hard every day to accomplish one thing.Even if that is to brush my teeth,Or take a shower which is also painful.It feels like bullets hitting my skin.I used to be a woman ok with my looks.I have always been thin.I am a little bit heavier but that is due to some medications.He doesn’t care how I look.He loves me no matter what.Indeed he has been the blessing in my life.Without him I just am not sure where I would be.But there is something called ‘loss of self ’slowly I have lost what made me,me.It bothers me and not him.But we all know that what we think about ourselves is the only opinion that we strive to achieve.I used to have hair to my waist I had to cut it short because I could not use my arms to dry it with a hair dryer.I had breast implants removed because I heard there may be a connection with Fibro.If a woman is willing to do that belive me she is in some serious pain.I hope you will submi both my comments.I also only feel better at night.So that is another mystery to me also.I have so many questions that I have not found the answers to.I welcome anyone who can identify with anything I have said.God Bless the American Pain Foundation.Pattie Liddell
No addiction! I am currently taking DHE for migraines, which is addictive and previously took Cafergot, which was very addictive and had to go into detox to get off of.
The main addiction is for the doctors who provide the prescriptions and get a kick back from the drug companies. The latest addiction is for Botox in treating migraines. The cost is around $350 per injection.
to debra tour life mirrors mine except im a single mom. my daughter knows i hurt. your pain however sounds like mine. I had torn leg. and tendons all over my body and have suffered for 10 years the diagnosis was fibro however when i went and saw a new fibromyalgia specialist he said I didnt have fibro i had reflex sympathetic dystrophy (rsd) i then saw others who diagnosed me the same. Even with a diagnosis however its still an invisible disease i get greif from doctors as well as others in my life them not knowing beleiveing or understanding no decent pain drs in washington state
I think the addiction comes more from the desire to escape the intense pain than because of the drug itself. It took me years to get off the meds because I had built up a tollerance and couldnt handle the pain without the meds. I slowly was weaned off and learned how to deal with different levels of pain without the meds.