Taking painkillers with opioids leads to dependence on many people

Experts warn against drug addiction with opioids
The prescription of analgesics with opioids carries great dangers. Patients are at risk of becoming dependent on these medicines. Researchers now found out that many of the opioid-taking sufferers still use the painkiller after one year.

The scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in an investigation that about a quarter of people who are prescribed opiod analgesics for a period of twelve days, these drugs still take a year later. The doctors published a press release on the results of their study.

The intake of opioids has risen sharply in recent years. Researchers are now warning of the dangers of taking analgesics with opioids. (Image: denisismagilov / fotolia.com)

Researchers analyze data from nearly 1.3 million patients
For their study, the experts examined data from nearly 1.3 million patients without cancer. From 2006 to 2015, the participants took painkillers with opioids for the first time. These include, for example, Vicodin and Oxycontin. The researchers wanted to determine what proportion of users of opioids take the medication in the long term.

Vuele users still use the opioids a year later
The results of the study clearly showed that about a quarter of those taking opioid analgesics for just 12 days still used the drug one year later. Almost half of the participants who took opioids for a period of one month also used the drug one year later, say the scientists.

Already one-day intake with a addictive effect?
In addition, the physicians found that about six percent of patients with a one-day supply of opioids, the drug even a year later. The percentage doubled when patients had to take the drug for six days. The value doubled again to 24 percent, if the patients had been prescribed the drug for twelve days, the experts explain.

Many people die of overdoses of opioids
The study appears at a time when many people in America are dying from overdoses of prescription opioids. In 2015, almost 15,000 people died from overdoses and the number had quadrupled since 1999, the researchers say.

Abuse of medication can have harmful consequences
The current study was focused on the prescription patterns. Because of this, physicians could not determine when patients develop patterns that match an addiction. Experts distinguish between patients who are only physically dependent on opioids as a result of illness, and people who have developed a complete addiction. In the latter case, those affected no longer only use medicines for medical purposes and accept the resulting harmful consequences.

Doctors need to be aware of the dangers
Doctors should be aware when prescribing medicines containing opioids that the first few days of taking such painkillers will determine whether long-term use will occur, explain the authors. For example, a second follow-up prescription of analgesics with opioids could double the likelihood that patients will continue to use the drug one year later, the scientists warn. (As)