Taking an opioid exactly as directed by a doctor can still kill you
We hear the horror stories all the time.
The rich and poor, young and old, the famous, like pop singer Prince, or your average Joe, are dying by overdosing on pain-killing opioid drugs.
But that’s not the only way these meds can kill you.
Because even if you’re really careful and follow your doctor’s orders to the T, they can be lethal.
New research from Vanderbilt University Medical School has uncovered the other deadly side to these drugs — one the mainstream isn’t talking about.
It’s an urgent warning that you need to know before you, or someone you love, fills an Rx for any opioid.
“As bad as people think the problem of opioid use is, it’s probably worse.”
That’s how Wayne Ray, health policy professor and lead author of the new Vanderbilt study, sums his research up.
And that’s saying a lot. Because most of us think opioid deaths are just something that happens to “other” people.
You know, the ones who are careless or addicted or trying to get high.
But these drugs can kill even when taken as directed.
Dr. Ray and his team looked at data for over 45,000 patients. And they found people taking opioid drugs had a 64 percent higher risk of dying during the first six months than those taking other types of pain meds.
Let me say that again: a 64 percent greater risk of dying!
And it’s not all about overdosing, either.
Of that group, 18 percent died because of an accidental overdose. And if that was the whole story, it would be bad enough.
But it turns out that opioid drugs, by the very way they work, can slow down your breathing. And that’s especially dangerous if you have a condition such as sleep apnea.
The researchers said opioids (which include oxycodone, codeine, hydrocodone and fentanyl, even as a skin patch) can lead to an “irregular heartbeat, heart attacks or sudden death.” And that’s especially true of the extended-release ones.
The most frightening part, however, is that the poor people in this study were taking opioids for pretty common conditions, like backaches and arthritis.
Can you believe it? People are literally dying trying to get some backache relief?
And that’s while other studies have found these kinds of drugs don’t even work for conditions like back pain.
In response to the study, Dr. Chad Brummett, director of pain research at the University of Michigan Health System, pointed out that “we’ve sounded the alarm over and over again.”
And he’s right about that. Not a day goes by when an expert or an agency like the CDC doesn’t issue another warning. But it doesn’t seem to slow down the prescription whirlwind one iota.
Last week a study published in JAMA found that large numbers of “opioid naïve” patients on Medicare are discharged from the hospital with an opioid Rx in hand. These are people who have no experience with these deadly drugs, which are being handed out to them like candy.
Not only that, but 40 percent were still on these meds three months after leaving the hospital!
Any one of us can be handed an opioid drug for almost any condition under the sun. That’s why you need to be extremely careful about what medications you’re given.
Every day 44 people in the U.S. die from a prescription drug overdose, the lion’s share being from opioids.
But we’ll never know how many more simply passed away in their sleep while taking the exact dose they were instructed to. And that’s why we all need to be more cautious than ever.
Sources:
“Opioids linked with deaths other than overdoses, study says” Associated Press, June 14, 2016, statnews.com
