Treating pain: opioids vs. alternatives

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Feb. 8, 2010

Opiates are drugs derived from the natural resin of the opium poppy, but the name usually is synonymous with opioids, which refer to chemicals that bind to opioid receptors in the central nervous system, mitigating pain. When dealing with serious and chronic pain, they are often the most powerful tools available. However, the side effects are well known—dependence, addiction, and sedation. What are researchers doing to minimize these side-effects? What can be done to minimize the misuse of opioids? And what alternate therapies can make their use unnecessary?

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Guests


Dr. Roger Chou, Director of the American Pain Society Clinical Practice Guidelines Program at Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR

Dr. Rick Chavez, an addiction and pain specialist and an assistant clinical professor of medicine. He also consults to the medical board of California and DEA on opiad misuse.

Gordon
1 month, 1 week ago

I use significant amount of pain relievers, the one that works the best is Fentanyl. But it is tooooo expensive. Most chronic pain suffers are un-insurable so we use the cheapest, Methadone for maintenance and ETH-Oxydose for breakthrough.
Love to hear something that would help me make life better.

Gerald Fnord
1 month, 1 week ago

Do the anandamide receptors have a direct role in pain perception, or is marijuana's (that is THC's and some of the other cannabinoids') effectiveness rooted more in changing perception (to avoid fixation on pain, bad in itself and associated with muscle-tension that makes things worse), or it effect as an inflammation suppressant?

Also: does acetominophen do much for anything beside headache, beside its apparent ability to make the liver clear opiates more slowly from the system?

Marjorie Robertson
1 month, 1 week ago

I have been taking oxycontin for more than two years for lower back pain under a doctor's care. What is the cognitive impact of oxycontin and similar opiates? Would you expect improvement with reduction in prescribed amount?

Ray Burkland
1 month, 1 week ago

One of the drawbacks to long term opioid use is that you start looking like little Ronnie Howard.

Gordon
1 month, 1 week ago

Distraction is wonderful and necessary; I limit my opioid myself because the tolerance is trouble because you need to take more and more. All I do is every month stop taking them for 5-7 days, those days are quite awful but you can start back up at a lower dosage and save yourself.

rich in Palms
1 month, 1 week ago

I've often wondered what role our over-active minds play in dealing with pain.

Most of us have seen the unfortunate wounded animals continue to struggle despite what must be massive pain -- eg deer running on broken legs, dogs and cats dragging themselves home from roadside accidents. I don't imagine that they don't feel pain, but perhaps they don't dwell on it like we do, and so can continue to function despite horrible injuries.

Peter
1 month, 1 week ago

With all the high profile cases of prescription drug abuses and overdoses, I feel compelled to once again point out the benefits of marijuana to mitigate pain. I have personally witnessed the suffering and destruction caused by pharmaceuticals yet I have never seen anyone OD on pot. If you dose too high with marijuana you just pass out. Weed is the only substance that has alleviated my muscle pain. When are we going to wake up and stop embracing prescription drugs at the same time vilifying pot? Which of the two is really the Evil?

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