Chronic pain, or pain that lasts for more than three months, is a serious health issue affecting millions of Americans. One common treatment for chronic pain has been opioid painkillers.
Opioids are a type of medicine that can help with pain, but they can also be very dangerous if not used correctly.
They can even lead to addiction or accidental overdose. So, there have been growing concerns about how these painkillers are used.
Recently, two big organizations in the U.S.—the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD)—have made some changes to their advice about using opioid painkillers for chronic pain.
They’ve made these changes to help doctors and patients make safer decisions about pain treatment. Let’s break down what these new recommendations mean.
New Recommendations: Less Use of Opioids
The new advice from the VA and DoD is pretty straightforward: they strongly advise against starting opioid treatment for chronic pain that’s not related to cancer.
This means if you have long-lasting pain from conditions like arthritis or back injury, these organizations recommend not using opioids as the first choice of treatment.
Why this change? Well, the people who made these new rules think that the possible harm from opioids is greater than the possible benefits, especially for certain groups of people.
For instance, younger people and people who’ve had problems with drugs or alcohol in the past are more likely to have serious problems with opioids, like developing an addiction or overdosing.
Using Other Drugs: A Case Against Mixing
The new advice also says that doctors should avoid prescribing both opioids and another type of drug, called benzodiazepines, at the same time for chronic pain.
Benzodiazepines, like Xanax or Valium, are often used to treat anxiety or help people sleep. But when used together with opioids, these medicines can be especially risky.
If opioids have to be prescribed, the new rules say, doctors should go for the lowest dose that will still help with the pain.
Also, if the doctor thinks the dose needs to be raised later on, they should think carefully about the pros and cons before making a decision.
Regular Check-ups: A Must for Safe Use
One important part of the new advice is that doctors should check in with patients often, especially if they’re taking opioids for their chronic pain. These check-ins should happen at least every 30 days.
This allows the doctor to see how the patient is doing, whether the medicine is helping with the pain, and whether there are any signs of problems, like addiction.
A New Option: The Case for Buprenorphine
There’s also something new in these recommendations.
The people who made the rules suggest that doctors might want to think about using a different type of drug, called buprenorphine, instead of traditional opioids for people with chronic pain.
Buprenorphine is a kind of painkiller that’s less likely to cause addiction or overdose.
What This Means for You
These new guidelines might sound complex, but the bottom line is simple: for people with chronic pain, the VA and DoD are urging caution when it comes to using opioids.
They want doctors to consider other options first and to keep a close eye on patients who do end up using these painkillers.
This doesn’t mean that opioids are always bad or that people with chronic pain can’t use them.
But it does mean that these powerful drugs should be used with care. Pain should be managed, but it should be done in the safest way possible.
If you care about health, please read studies about life-saving treatment for nation’s opioid disorder epidemic, and these sleep drugs may increase death risk when used with opioids.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how to reduce post-surgical pain without opioids, and results showing this vitamin deficiency may increase your risk of opioid addiction.
The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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