If you’re considering taking opioids to manage chronic pain, it’s important to learn about opioid side effects and possible risks of use, abuse, and misuse. What are common opioid side effects? Even when used correctly, opioids have a long list of potential side effects. Opioid side effects may include: Nausea Vomiting Drowsiness or sedation Skin changes, … Read more
Opiates include the strongest, most powerful painkillers on the market. They include such well-known drugs as morphine, oxycodone, and codeine. The street drug heroin also falls into this category. Even though doctors frequently prescribe opiates to help patients manage acute or long-term pain, there are many risks of opiate use that carry the potential for serious … Read more
Chronic pain is one of the nation’s most pervasive health problems, affecting about 100 million people. To alleviate patients’ suffering, pain medicine doctors have over the last few decades frequently prescribed opioids, a class of powerful and dangerously addictive medications. As the number of prescriptions has piled up, so have the rates of addiction and … Read more
Opioids are a hot topic right now as the Centers for Disease Control recently released new guidelines for healthcare providers to follow before and during any opioid therapy treatment. This is especially important because these suggested guidelines lay down specific steps for providers to follow. Many of these focus on treating chronic pain in general. … Read more
In March of this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new pain management guidelines for health care providers relating to opioid use called the Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. Specifically, these guidelines laid out suggestions on how physicians should curtail writing prescriptions for opioids. In the case of chronic pain … Read more
There has been a lot of controversy over the last few years about the risks and benefits of opioid painkillers as well as how they are used in treating chronic pain. It is important to note, however, that this does not include certain patients such as those diagnosed with cancer or those who are undergoing … Read more
Pain is almost never a good sign and it affects more people in the U.S. than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. The main treatment for pain comes from prescription pain medications most of which are known as opioids. These meds are extremely valuable when fighting chronic pain, but can lead to some serious side … Read more
As you may know, last year the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a draft of some very controversial new opioid prescribing guidelines for those with chronic pain. These guidelines were meant to reduce the number of people in the U.S. who are taking opioids, as dependency, overdose, and abuse were on the rise. While … Read more
By Ted Swing, Ph.D Medications are one of the most common treatments for pain. Their effectiveness for immediate pain is well-established and they can be effective for treating chronic pain as well. One of the most widely used types of pain medications are opioids, such as morphine or oxycodone. Studies have found that these medications … Read more
Increasing opioid prescription rates have escalated the number of people abusing the drug. And while the majority people taking the pills don’t abuse them, the epidemic and its implications are shaping the national drug abuse conversation. Frighteningly, some measures intended to curb the disturbing trend have only turned the most vulnerable opioid abusers onto heroin. … Read more