Study finds opioids not helpful in treating chronic pain

A new study maintains that the use of opioid therapy to treat chronic pain is not only ineffective, it can actually increase the likelihood of more harmful consequences, including death.

Palliative care physicians Mellar Davis and Zankhana Mehta authored the Geisinger Health System study which provides a review of the current research on chronic opioid therapy. The study was published in the December 2016 edition of Current Oncology Reports.

"When patients are given opioid therapy for chronic pain, there is evidence that it interferes with the body's natural resolution of the pain," said Dr Davis, who co-chaired the 2015 International Conference on Opioids at Harvard Medical School. "Opioid therapy may put someone at an increased risk for multiple adverse effects. And it actually has the potential of extending the history of their pain," he noted.