US neurologists warn against long-term opioid use for non-cancer pain

摘要

The risk of death, overdose, addiction and serious side effects of opioids outweigh their pain relieving benefits in chronic non-cancer conditions, such as headache, fibromyalgia and chronic lower back pain, the American Academy of Neurology says in a paper published in Neurology (online, 30 September 2014), More than 100,000 people have died in the United States from prescribed opioids, directly or indirectly, since the 1990s when the drugs started to be used more widely for non-cancer chronic pain, the paper says. In the highest-risk group (35-54 years), mortality rates exceed those of both motor accidents and incidents with firearms.