DANVILLE – New research from Geisinger Health System suggests that opioids are not an effective treatment for chronic pain. Dr. Mellar Davis co-authored the study and tells WKOK that this class of drugs was originally intended for a specific group of patients, “As we got comfortable with using opioids for cancer pain, there arose the fact that maybe this same strategy could be used for treating non-cancer pain.”
Dr. Davis says there are long-term negative effects of opioid use beyond the risk of addiction, “The paper that we wrote looked at other long-term problems like sleep apnea, infections, falls risks, loss of testosterone, central hypogonadism, and loss of fertility.”
Research into opioids has shown that chronic pain is not an extension of acute pain, “Sophisticated studies showed that chronic pain is not acute pain, that the brain has changed when pain becomes chronic.”
Those brain changes make opioids less effective and Dr. Davis points out the drugs can actually induce and maintain pain rather than alleviate it, “There are body mechanisms by which we do control pain and they may be interfered with by exogenous opioids, the morphines and the rest of those. We may be feeling that we’re doing someone good by keeping them on an opioid, but in fact, we may be just propagating the problem or maintaining their pain.”
There are alternative treatments for chronic pain, “We need to think in terms of what is the best therapy for people with chronic, non-cancer pain. Is it blocks, is it cognitive behavioral therapy, is it a combination of things?”
Dr. Davis says pharmaceutical treatment alone is not an adequate treatment for chronic pain. You can hear more from Dr. Davis on WKOK Sunrise online at wkok.com. (Jennifer Wakeman)
