Here’s a sobering statistic, from U Michigan: About six percent of people who hadn’t taken opioids before their surgery, but were prescribed opioids for post-surgery pain, were still taking the opioids six months later.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2618383
I’m not saying all or most are addicts. But that’s way too many people taking opioids.
That’s a really interesting study @CardinalFang. I just wanted to clarify that it’s not just knee surgery patients. The patients included had a wide variety of surgeries.
In at least some of these cases, it sounds as though acute pain from the surgery morphed into chronic pain – a tough problem and one that opioids don’t even treat very effectively.
Just so people understand what happens with opioids. The commonly prescribed opioids enduce euphoria- and a desire to continue using the drug- by triggering a spike in the level of the chemical messenger dopamine in the brain. They are working on a new opioid that enters the brain slowly to reduce the release of dopamine.
In #80, I cited a study that said 6% of people who hadn’t taken opioids before their surgery were still taking opioids six months after their surgery.
It didn’t seem to matter whether the surgery was minor or major. About six percent of patients were still taking opioids six months after things like hysterectomy or bariatric surgery, which are regarded as major. About six percent of patients were still taking opioids six months after operations like carpal tunnel surgery and varicose vein removal, minor surgeries. Factors that might indicate susceptibility to addiction were relevant, though: smokers, alcoholics and people with mood disorders were more likely to be still taking the opioids than people without those factors.