Chronic Pain Drugs And Obesity - Seriously! Is That A Reason To Ban The Drugs?

Today's post from pulsetoday.co.uk (see link below) was sent in by Nigel, who's comment pretty much sums it up:- "It would seem that being in pain is OK...being fat is not. One would think that the clue is in the title 'chronic'." It's pretty typical of the sort of article that is swamping the medical internet at the moment. By jumping on the anti-opioid and strong painkiller bandwagon, people will find any reason they can to label those drugs as 'bad' at all costs. In this case, the claim is made that opioids and other drugs used to control chronic nerve pain, lead to obesity and general health deterioration - as if obesity is worse than the chronic pain that people need these drugs for (nobody is suggesting that obesity isn't a problem here)! Meanwhile, drink yourself into an early grave - nobody cares as long as opioids are banned! That all said, nobody disputes the fact that the side effects of strong analgesics should never be under-estimated; that's why your doctor should be monitoring you every step of the way, in order to avoid side effects before they happen and when necessary, switch medications to avoid addiction but that is not banning them!! This article advises using opioids and others for a short period of time - okay...and what then!! Why do these people think that neuropathy patients end up on the strongest pain killers! It's not through some perverse desire to become addicted, or 'enjoy' potential side effects - it's because they've already tried everything else available and find that nothing else works to dampen their nerve pain. There is no alternative for many people, so what's happening in America and eventually in the rest of the world, means that taking these drugs away because of some hysterically political media campaign, leaves chronic pain patients suffering like never before.  The problems with opioids and other strong drugs are social and require a multi-disciplinary but caring approach - banning them just drives people onto the black market and heroine and the like - is that the result they want? I'm sorry but suggesting that strong analgesics should be banned because they make people fat, is plain nonsense and they spent your taxes on this sort of non-research!

Prescribe chronic pain medications for shorter periods of time, researchers advise
11 December 2017 By Melissa Jacobs

Commonly used analgesic drugs significantly impair cardio-metabolic health and obesity and should be used for shorter periods of time, a Newcastle University study has found.

The research, published in PLOS ONE found that gabapentinoids and opiates doubled the risk of obesity and were associated with increased rates of hypertension and poor sleep.

Scientists assessed the cardio-metabolic (CM) health and sleep patterns of more than 133,000 participants from the UK Biobank.

Body Mass Index, waist circumference and blood pressure were compared between those taking painkillers for chronic, non-cancer pain and cardio-metabolic drugs, compared to those prescribed cardio-metabolic treatment only.

After controlling for the factors which impact upon CM health, the odds of being obese, having a ‘very high risk’ waist measurement and hypertension were significantly increased in those on analgesic medication.

Patients on opiates and cardio-metabolic drugs had the worst CM profile, and were 95% more likely to be obese, 82% more likely to have a 'very high risk’ waist circumference and 63% more likely to have hypertension, as compared to those on cardio-metabolic drugs only.

Those taking neuropathic pain medications and CM drugs also reported a worse CM profile than those taking CM drugs only.

The proportion of patients sleeping less than six hours or more than nine hours a night was higher in the analgesic groups, with those taking combination prescriptions of both neuropathic pain medication and opiates showing the worst sleep.

Dr Sophie Cassidy, lead author and research associate at Newcastle University’s institute of cellular medicine, noted the large increase in opioid and non-opioid prescriptions for pain in last two decades. She said: ‘This is the largest study looking at the links between commonly prescribed painkillers and cardio-metabolic health.

‘We already know that opiates are dependency-forming but this study also found patients taking opiates have the worst health.

‘These results add further weight to calls for these chronic pain medications to be prescribed for shorter periods.’

Study co-author, Dr Kirstie Anderson, honorary senior lecturer at Newcastle University and consultant neurologist at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, added: ‘There has been recent concern about opioids and a large number of side-effects, including worsening overnight breathing and therefore disturbed sleep.

‘Our study is the largest of its kind to look at this group of drugs and show an association between obesity and poor sleep.

‘Further studies are needed to understand how the drugs may affect metabolism over time.’

This comes as the government is consulting on its plan to reclassify the gabapentinoids as controlled Class C drugs, following a spike in the number of related deaths and series of studies warning about the adverse effects of the medication.

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinical/prescribing/prescribe-chronic-pain-medications-for-shorter-periods-of-time-researchers-advise/20035813.article