Prescription opioids, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, are used to treat moderate to severe pain. As the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains on its website, they reduce the perception of pain by attaching to specific proteins called opioid receptors, which are found on nerve cells in the brain and elsewhere. The medications can produce a sense of well-being, but they can also cause drowsiness, mental confusion, nausea and constipation.Opioid use can have other negative effects as well, said Dr. William Lippert, a pain management specialist with Penrose-St. Francis Health Services. Opioids, for example, decrease respiration — slowing breathing to a deadly level in the case of an overdose. They also can affect hormones, decreasing libido and causing fertility issues, and may act to suppress the immune system, he said.Long-term use can lead to hyperalgesia,”a paradoxical responseî causing an increased sensitivity to painful stimuli. On the flip side is the problem of tolerance: As time goes on, you need more of the medicine to achieve the same effect.Anyone who takes prescription opioids can become addicted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns; as many as one in four patients receiving long-term opioid therapy in a primary care setting struggles with opioid addiction.So what’s a safe use? “That’s the million-dollar question,” Lippert said. If someone has a total-knee replacement, which can be very painful post-surgery, and is put on “a legitimate dose” of opioid pain reliever for weeks, there is the potential for getting hooked, he said. If put on opioids for just a couple of days, “I think the risk is almost nil.î
