Opioid addiction can happen in the blink of an eye

If you’re lucky enough to not know someone whose life has been turned upside down by opioid drugs, consider yourself fortunate.

Because according to some shocking new research, even your own chances of becoming a “chronic” opioid user are a lot higher than you might ever imagine. And that’s the case no matter what your age or where you live.

And steering clear of that risk may all depend on asking your doctor just one simple — but vital — question.

The more the riskier

Practically any label you pin on the opioid problem in the U.S. is an understatement.

It’s invaded every nook and cranny of our great country. And it’s killing 91 people in the U.S. every single day, according to CDC numbers.

So, how did this all come about?

Big Pharma, of course, started the ball rolling — assuring doctors for the longest time that these drugs weren’t addictive and that it was safe to keep giving them out to patients as long as needed.

But, for far too many, that turned out to be for the rest of their lives.

Now, two recent studies have discovered some vital pieces of information about why this epidemic keeps on growing.

New research from the University of Michigan found that if you’re having any kind of surgery, you have a 1 in 16 chance of becoming a chronic user of opioids.

You might think those are pretty good odds — until you realize that that’s an average across many different types of surgeries and many different types of drugs given at various dosages.

Compare those findings with another even more frightening study from researchers at the University of Arkansas, who discovered that the number of pills you’re discharged can even more accurately predict your odds of becoming a long-term user.

And it could be a lot greater than 1 in 16, especially if your doc sends you off with a month’s supply of OxyContin.

For example, with a one-day dose of an opioid drug, said lead author Dr. Bradley Martin, your risk of still being on that drug a year later is 6 percent.

But for each day you add, the risk climbs… and it climbs quickly.

A five-day supply ups the danger of addiction to 10 percent. And if your doctor gives you an Rx that’s good for 10 days, your odds of becoming a long-term opioid user jumps to 20 percent. That’s 1 out of 5!

And that steep rise to fast-track addiction was something even Dr. Martin was shocked to see, saying “we really didn’t expect that.”

But why do doctors keep dispensing so many of these pills when they (should) know full well about the danger?

In an article he wrote for the Courier-Journal, Johns Hopkins Professor of Surgery Dr. Marty Makary recalls that during his residency, he was trained to give every surgical patient a prescription for 30 to 90 opioid tablets upon being discharged.

At the time, he said, doctors were told that would prevent late-night phone calls from patients asking for more. “For most of my surgical career, I gave out opioids like candy,” he admits.

That was 15 years ago — but it’s not as if that practice has gone the way of the horse and buggy. Because, as Dr. Makary tells it, while 3 to 10 tablets after a C-section is now considered within “best practices range,” some doctors are still sending patients home with prescriptions for 30 to 60 tablets!

The doctor’s own “aha moment” came when his father had gall bladder surgery and “recovered comfortably at home with a single ibuprofen tablet.”

So, whether you’ve known your doctor for decades or just a day, if he gives you any prescription to treat any kind of pain — especially after surgery — you need to find out if it’s an opioid drug. And if it is, ask for other options.

Because we know enough right now to say that even one opioid pill can be one too many.

“Doctors can stop the opioid crisis by not over-prescribing” Marty Makary, August 4, 2017, Courier-Journal, courier-journal.com