In a new study, researchers found opioid drugs could bring health risks to people with chronic kidney disease.
The research was conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University.
For people with low kidney functions, medication options are often limited.
Previous studies have shown that patients with chronic kidney disease usually get prescribed opioids to help deal with pain.
This is because people with kidney diseases often cannot take common over-the-counter pain relievers, such as ibuprofen, which can further harm their kidneys.
In the current study, the team examined health records for about 100,000 adults in a Pennsylvania health care system.
They compared the healthy conditions between people who took opioid drugs and who did not take opioids.
The researchers found that generally, people had 1.5 times higher risk of dying or being hospitalized if they took opioid drugs for pain relief.
Moreover, in people with chronic kidney disease, the risk of dying or being hospitalized was much higher.
The researchers explain that healthy kidneys can help filter toxins and waste from the body. But in people with chronic kidney disease, the kidney functions are damaged.
The lower-functioned kidneys cannot get rid of drugs like opioids and increase the risk of toxicity.
The team hopes their finding could raise awareness among people with kidney disease about the health risks of taking opioid drugs.
In addition, doctors should pay attention to their patients’ health conditions when prescribing opioids.
Future work needs to directly check if opioid overdoses could lead to death or hospitalization.
It is also important to find a safer way to treat chronic pain for people with kidney diseases.
The lead author of the study is Dr. Tessa Novick, a nephrology fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
The study is presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions conference.
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