Use of Narcotic Drugs for Back Pain Lead to Abuse and Addiction
When narcotic opioid drugs are prescribed for back pain, there is a good chance that the user may develop a dependency on the substance. According to a recent study conducted at the Yale School of Medicine, long-term users of these drugs develop behavior that is consistent with opioid abuse 24 percent of the time.
Researchers at Yale conducted a systematic review of literature to determine the usage rates and the effectiveness of prescription opioid drugs for patients with chronic back pain. Included in the study were patients over the age of 18. It was restricted to persons who were not obstetric patients and who had no signs of the chronic back pain being caused by a malignancy. Each had been suffering from back pain for at least 3 months prior to treatment.
Researchers looked at opioid medications that were administered orally, transdermally or as a topical application. None of the people in the study had any previous diagnosis of opioid dependency.
“Patients with chronic back pain commonly request pain medication and opioid medications are used despite the concerns clinicians have with patients developing an addiction to these medications,” said study author Bridget Martell, M.D., an assistant professor of general internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
Researchers also raised questions about any effectiveness of these drugs, raising additional concerns about whether or not opioids should be administered in any case of back pain. According to the research report, there was some indication that opioids may have some effectiveness on pain for the short-term (less than 4 months) but that any effectiveness for the long term was not conclusive.
Chiropractic offers back pain sufferers treatments for their conditions that are drug-free and often prove to be very effective after one adjustment or following a specified series of adjustments. The body is given every opportunity to heal itself as a patient’s awareness for his condition is raised and he is allowed to be a participant in his own healing. A person who is treated by a chiropractor will never have the problem of dealing with an opioid addiction as described in this study because drugs are never prescribed as part of the treatment. Back pain sufferers would be well advised to see a chiropractor first before engaging in any other form of treatment.