Pain killers and surgery: Is there a link?
Hello
I have always wondered what it was the likelihood of being on painkillers long after surgery if you took them before the surgery.
Here is a study that looked at just that.
This study looked at people using opioid type painkillers periodically, now and then, before surgery, to see how many of them continued to use them persistently after the surgery.
The researchers and I believed that they would.
The types of pain killers the people used are opioid-based pain killers like codeine, stilpayne, tramadol and the like.
The researchers excluded people that took these pills every day, as they just wanted to look at the people that used them now and then.
They found that before surgery 41% of patients were periodic users of opioid painkillers and would have their prescriptions filled now and then.
They also found that “Compared to other risk factors, patterns of preoperative filling of prescriptions were strongly correlated with persistent postoperative opioid use.”
“Patients with intermittent use were significantly more likely to have prolonged prescription refills after surgery compared with those who haven’t used opioids.
They concluded that “periodic opioid use before surgery patients are vulnerable to persistent opioid use”.
This tells me that opioids are far more addictive and dependence inducing than we once thought.
Do you want to stay on them?
Jason
