Statement on recent evidence of increasing access to, and episodes of poisoning from prescription opioids
18th Sep 2017
British Pain Society
Statement on recent evidence of increasing access to, and episodes of poisoning from prescription opioids
Opioids such as morphine, codeine, tramadol, oxycodone and fentanyl, are some of the oldest and most powerful pain-relieving medicines available. They can be very effective for acute pain following trauma or surgery and pain in cancer patients at the end of life. Over recent years, opioid medicines have been prescribed more commonly for other types of long-term pain such as back pain, arthritis or nerve pain. However, there is less evidence that they are effective in the longer term for these types of pain. More importantly, there is good evidence that used for these chronic forms of pain, troublesome side-effects can outweigh any potential benefits.
When prescribed appropriately and taken as directed, the risks with opioids can be minimised. However, a new report1 shows that opioid medicines do pose risks as there has been a large increase in the number of people attending hospital with poisoning from opioids. There are probably many reasons for this finding. The most important is that there has been a large increase in prescribing since 2005 (more than 100%). Studies from the USA and more recently from UK show that people may have been obtaining these medicines from sources other than their GP, such as family or friends, illicit sources or over the internet.2
Managing long-term pain can be complex and medicines sometimes form only a small part of an overall treatment plan. The British Pain Society aims to make pain visible and improve the lives of all people living with pain. https://www.britishpainsociety.org/painless-campaign/
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/13/opioid-painkiller-overdoses-more-than-double-decade-england
- https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2016-to-2017-csew
British Pain Society Media Team 18 September 2017
Email: [email protected]