What are the risks of using opioid pain medication?

The main effects and risks of using opioids include nausea and constipation, accidental overdose, and addiction if they are used long-term. Pain management expert Devi Nampiaparampil, MD, discusses the various risks of taking opioid medications.

Transcript

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But the other things you worry about is that they might become more dependent on these medications and actually start taking more. And you might see something forming like an addiction.

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So the main risks of opioids, we have to separate them out into immediate risks, short-term risks, and long-term risks. So in terms of the immediate risk,

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you worry that if you take too much of an opioid that you could actually have an accidental drug overdose. So what happens is that you get very tired and sedated,

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and you stop breathing normally. And eventually, you can have an accidental drug overdose because of that. And that usually is at a greater chance or a greater risk

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if you're taking opioids along with something else that might make you tired and less aware of this, so for example, alcohol or, you know, any other kind of medications

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that could make you very tired. Then we think about the short-term risks. So this is over the course of days or weeks. So what you're worried about are just

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the side effects that trouble people, so let's say nausea. You know, if they're really groggy or sleepy, if they're constipated, that can be a problem at that point.

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You know, sometimes it can cause people to feel really itchy. So the thing is if someone just had surgery, these side effects may be OK for a few days

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when they're in the hospital, because they'll use these medications, then they'll go home and they'll kind of stop taking them and they'll feel better. But then we worry about people who

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have chronic pain who might be on these things for a long time. So then we have to consider the long-term side effects. So they can still have the immediate

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and the short-term effects. But the other things you worry about is that they might become more dependent on these medications and actually start taking more.

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And you might see something forming like an addiction. So an addiction is when somebody continues to use something even if it's harmful.

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And what we worry about in that case is, of course, that someone might have an accidental drug overdose.