Common surgeries linked to increased risk of opioid dependence

Older patients are at surprisingly high risk of opioid addiction

We’ve all heard the shocking stream of reports about opioid painkiller addiction — and death.

And you may have thought, “That could never happen to me!”

But a new report has put this agonizing health crisis in a whole new light.

Researchers have found that several common surgeries — including some that thousands of seniors get every year — could put you on the fast track to a serious opioids problem.

That’s why it’s urgent that we all become wise to this danger.

Because the consequences can be lethal.

Piling risk upon risk

The deadly epidemic we’re now facing in the U.S. isn’t coming from Ebola or even the Zika virus.

It’s coming straight from Big Pharma’s blockbuster opioid meds. And it’s a shockingly easy trap to fall into.

In a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, researchers analyzed opioid drug use records for more than half a million surgical patients, looking at 11 types of surgery.

And they found those who had these seven common operations were at significantly greater risk of opioid addiction.

Total hip replacement
Total knee replacement
Mastectomy
Laparoscopic gallbladder removal
Open gallbladder removal
Open appendectomy
Cesarean delivery

This list is striking because most of these surgeries are apt to be performed on older patients, for whom opioids may cause the most complications.

The Stanford team points out in their report in JAMA Internal Medicine that many types of surgery are associated with greater risk of chronic opioid use, especially when patients are men over the age of 50.

In other words, we’re talking about millions of people who go into surgery thinking that painkiller abuse won’t be an issue for them.

And the consequences of being wrong about that are far more dangerous than you could ever imagine.

Every week, hundreds of people in the U.S. die of prescription drug overdose, and most of those cases involve opioid painkillers. And just last month I told you how an overdose is just one way these drugs can rob patients of their lives.

Research at Vanderbilt University Medical School found that people who used opioid drugs had an unbelievable 64 percent higher risk of dying in the first six months of drug use compared to patients using other types of painkillers.

What’s really troubling about this study is that only one in five of these deaths was caused by accidental overdose. That’s because opioid drug use can slow down your breathing and trigger irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, and sudden death. And if you suffer from a condition such as sleep apnea, you’re at an even greater risk.

One of the more shocking findings from the Vanderbilt study was that these patients weren’t recovering from hip replacement or mastectomy, but were taking these drugs for common, everyday pains such as backaches and arthritis!

It’s long past time for doctors to wake up and realize that simply whipping out an Rx for a risky opioid drug and sending you on your way isn’t really doing their job responsibly.

They have to think of themselves as pain managers, prescribing such meds only when absolutely necessary and guiding patients in finding less risky methods of obtaining relief.

Otherwise, meds like oxycodone, codeine, and hydrocodone will not only keep killing the pain… but the patients, too.

Sources:
“Certain surgeries linked to greater risk of chronic opioid use” MPR, July 13, 2016, empr.com