Painkillers not as addictive as feared: study

[MishMash]

There are no known effective treatments for ME/CFS at this time. If pain is truly an factor in your ME/CFS or FM then at some point narcotic painkillers might be a subject of discussion with your physician.

Much of it depends on lifestyle factors: do you need to work everyday, be a parent or caregiver, or are you on disability and can cope by rest and removing stress from your life? For patients, it is not one-size-fits-all.

This article affirms what I have always felt was the case. It is a fallacy that narcotic painkiller use typically ends in addiction. According to this article, the addiction rate for those who use them in a legitimate medical context is 4.5%.

For those with past issues of alcoholism, substance abuse, pyschological issues, then the rate jumps to 30% percent. Some doctors and patients alike have confused the two groups, probably leading to the undertreatment of some very sick people.

Painkillers are generally considered much more addictive than benzodiazopine drugs. So their addiction rate is probably even lower. And I constantly hear the bias against those too when the subject of Klonopin comes up. Some patients may be suffering needlessly.

ME/CFS is usually a life long struggle. Most people, friends, acquaintances, and more importantly doctors, will secretly doubt there's anything wrong with you beside depression, a negative attitude. We've heard that in spades from the UK members.

It's a life boat out there, folks, and it's every man or woman for himself. And people who are newly diagnosed deserved to be given an honest assessment of what the facts are.

"If you're a person that doesn't have a history of addiction and doesn't have any major psychiatric problems, narcotics are relatively safe as long as your doctor doesn't give you too much and uses the right medication," Fleming, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

and

To get a sense of how addictive opioid painkillers are for those patients who do have a prescription, researchers from The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group that reviews research on medications, collected the results from 17 studies covering more than 88,000 people.

All of the patients had been prescribed opioids to treat chronic pain, and nearly all of them had pain unrelated to cancer.

In 10 of the studies, patients used the painkillers for anywhere from three months to several years, while one study included just short-term use of several days and the others did not report the length of time patients were on the drugs.

Taken together, the studies found that 4.5 percent of people developed a dependency on the painkillers.

"It's a low percentage," said Dr. Silvia Minozzi, lead author of the study and a member of the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group in Rome.

Although 4.5 percent was the most common rate of addiction among the studies, Minozzi pointed out there were large differences in the rates each study found - ranging from zero to 31 percent..

For instance, a study by Boscarino and his colleagues that was included in Minozzi's review found that 25 percent of patients became addicted. The group of patients Boscarino surveyed had a high rate of alcoholism and illegal drug use, though.

 

[MishMash]

Sorry, the article is located at:
http://news.yahoo.com/painkillers-not-addictive-feared-study-211543917.html

 

[SilverbladeTE]

this was known YEARS AGO!!
All down to the insane US "War on Drugs" covering up any work on showing the true *issues* of drugs, not merely "danger to keep the sheeple afeared/ignorant" but *issues*

US demands forced many countries ot stop using heroin as a painkiller, despite long accumulated evidence and studies showing painkillers used in proper clinical need and that means proper oversight, are rarely addictive
War on Drugs did jack to stop the *illegal* heroin trade/problem except ot keep the price high,
which helped support the genocidal US bombing campaign in Laos, jeesh!
Oh and now, prescription drug abuse kills way more Americans than illegal drugs because it's about *deliberate abuse*, folk shop around doctors, who unwittingly say, 5 or more docs will prescribe to one person who is thus abusing/overmedicating ebcause they are stupid idiots on way to addiction becaus hey it's "fun, docs dont' prescrtibe bad things!" idiots, look at number of dead US celebs in recent years from exactly this kind of thing.
AND in mexico it's so bad, they have "torture factories" and drug barons moving aorund in armoured 18 wheelers
AND it pays the Taleban handsomely to kill our people
ANd it gets 1000+ Iranian security/cops killed in gun battles with drug dealers every year, and a keeps million heroin addicts in a mess (bet those wanting war on Iran never talk about those kind of issues, yes lousy government but much more complex than it's painted)

and so on and so forth.
I'm long fed up hearign about the mythical "slippery slope" of drug addiction, nealry every single addict I have ever known, has had serious perosnal problems that lead them to addiction and I have known a great many addicts, and by far the worst is booze. heroin maybe more potent/quicker path to hell, but booze is way way more popular and in the end, just as deadly.

Cocaine is the big drug of choice here for those wanting "seriosu stuff", awash with it. heroin dealers short walk from me, been about a deaht per month this yead of folk I know form alcholism, so I'm not completely talking out my butt

 

[heapsreal]

smokes and alcohol abuse kill more people and there kept legal and governments make alot of money on taxing these products.

 

[AFCFS]

And Rush Limbaugh seems fine, now - he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months.

- Thinking if the government would have just taxed is personal addiction, US would not be in debt right now.

 

[heapsreal]

smokes and alcohol abuse kill more people and there kept legal and governments make alot of money on taxing these products.

because many with cfs/me have alcohol intolerance we cant abuse alcohol like other people, bugger, i suppose we arent paying our share of taxes then.

 

[*GG*]

because many with cfs/me have alcohol intolerance we cant abuse alcohol like other people, bugger, i suppose we arent paying our share of taxes then.

LOL, I will not say which political party in the US I would tag with this issue!

GG

 

[LaurelW]

I disagree with a lot of what's been said above. I was prescribed opiates for gall bladder pain, never took more than I was prescribed, don't have personal problems and am very well-adjusted, and I developed addiction after only two weeks. It was hell getting off of them and I had to go to inpatient detox. That being said, some people use these drugs for years without getting addicted. Everyone is different.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

LarelW
I did say "rarely addictive"
see work on cocaine addiction and the chemistry of the brain, interesting stuff that lead ot greater udnerstanding of other forms of addiction and treatments not just of addictions, but understanidngs and thus treatments for other problems.

Addiction is NOT "moral degenracy" as has been hammered on for donkeys years, except in a few cases of truly dissolue, libertine buttholes, but they are a minority.
Use, and mostly of course, long term use, of almost any drug, legitimate or not, has side effects. hard fact of life.

very awful case off wee boy here in Uk who had a terrible reaction to a common, usually safe painkiller, ended up losing much of his skin *shudders* he's wlel on way to recovery but it does show you the great variety of ways we can react
so, with ME. it's little wodner there's variety, jsut with the basic 23x2 chromosomes, you get 70 billion possible combinations of humans, and that's just the BASICS actually it's hell of a lot more than that, the number is just beyond grasp.
hence, the usual empircal reductionionist methods simply cannot work for the possible compelxities of real world illnesses or reactiosn to drugs etc
fine in a physics lab, absolutely not fine for Human health, as alas, you have shown
my Mum and gran both had a very severe reaction to one specific class of medicine as another example

 

[MishMash]

... I developed addiction after only two weeks. It was hell getting off of them and I had to go to inpatient detox. That being said, some people use these drugs for years without getting addicted. Everyone is different.

The researchers did say that those with underlying psychiatric issues are at much greater risk. I know Utah has the highest rate of depression and prescription of anti-depressants in the country.

 

[liquid sky]

"Taken together, the studies found that 4.5 percent of people developed a dependency on the painkillers.
"It's a low percentage," said Dr. Silvia Minozzi, lead author of the study and a member of the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group in Rome.

Although 4.5 percent was the most common rate of addiction among the studies, Minozzi pointed out there were large differences in the rates each study found - ranging from zero to 31 percent.." from above article

The problem with these statements is they mix dependency with addiction. They are NOT the same thing. A person who takes opioids for a long time will become dependent. This means they will have withdrawal if they stop the medication abruptly.

Addiction, on the other hand, is when a person ABUSES opioids by taking more of them than prescribed or going doctor shopping for multiple prescriptions. All controlled prescriptions should be from one doctor and most pain specialists will require that you sign a contract that sets out the rules for continued prescriptions.

Not sure which group the 4.5% refers to here?

When a person is in chronic severe pain that cannot be relieved by other means, opiate pain killers should be made available to them if they so choose to use them. Pain is subjective and therefore very under treated. Doctors, like most people, only believe what they can see and severe pain is often invisible.

 

[MishMash]

Yes, liquid sky, thank you for making that important distinction. Not even most doctors understand it, much less many patients. I'm afraid there are many prejudices and old stereotypes that still permeate the medical atmosphere. So docs fall back to permanent risk aversion. Better a thousand people suffer needlessly than one outlier patient develop an instant addiction, or whatever the story is.

I think the study emphasized the values, and the inherent dangers, of controlled substances. And if taken under a doctor's care, very very few people end up addicted. As you said, some folks need these to for pain and to continue some semblance of a normal life. They are a as much a blessing as a curse.

 

[LaurelW]

I have a friend with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in her foot, and she has to take them--there is no other option. She's been on opiates continuously for 8 years, knows she has a chemical dependency, but there's nothing she can do about it because her pain is unbearable without them. She has aged very visibly the last couple years. I feel so bad for her. She said that even if they amputated her foot, the pain may not go away, could turn into phantom limb pain.

Thanks for outlining the distinction between dependency and addiction--very important.

You're right about the high rate of prescription drug abuse in Utah--it's a huge problem here.

 

[MishMash]

I have a friend with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in her foot, and she has to take them--there is no other option...

Laurel,
This will probably sound suspiciously in line with my belief in liberal use of pain meds to treat illness.

But I suggest you show this youtube video to your friend regarding Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. It's a treatment that involves Ketamine, that is (sorry) a narcotic pain medicine. For people with CRPS, the results are dramatic.

 

[LaurelW]

I will share that with her, thanks very much.