- “Before starting opioid therapy for chronic aches, clinicians should establish treatment goals with all patients, including realistic goals for aches and function, and should consider how opioid therapy will be discontinued if benefits do not outweigh risks.”
- “Before starting and periodically during opioid therapy, clinicians should discuss with patients known risks and realistic benefits of opioid therapy and patient and clinician responsibilities for managing therapy.”
- “Clinicians should avoid prescribing opioid medication and benzodiazepines concurrently whenever possible.”
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Unfortunately, even with said suggestions, opioid addiction and overdose is an epidemic plaguing our streets. While heroine is illegal, both legal and illegal opioids have the same effect on the brain.
According to Harvard Health Publications, after brief relief from profound discomfort–when you first begin taking opioids—people build up a tolerance to their ache-numbing effect and dosage “escalates rapidly.” In a matter of months, you can end up taking dangerously high doses just to maintain some level of alleviation.
Further research argues that side effects including sedation, low sex hormones, severe constipation, dry mouth, central sleep apnea, lung and heart problems, far out weight the possible benefit. Not to mention, patients taking opioids are at risk of accidental overdose or worse, death if combined with other medicines or substances such as alcohol, certain anti-anxiety and seizure medications, muscle relaxants and sleep aids, according to findings by the University of Utah.
Oddly enough, while the number of prescription opioids has grown fourfold, the total of instances reported by Americans has not changed much, the CDC says.