Prescription opioid analgesics rapidly change the human brain

[truth_seeker]

Prescription opioid analgesics rapidly change the human brain

Published online 2011 Apr 30.

1. Introduction

Opioid prescriptions have increased markedly in recent years, driven by a greater reliance on the potent analgesics for the treatment of chronic pain [18, 34]. Opioid analgesics are second only to lipid regulators as the most dispensed drug class in the United States [28]. Hydrocodone, a moderately-powerful opioid, was dispensed in the United States more than any other drug in 2008 – over 128 million times [27]. As opioid use rises, it becomes increasingly important that we better understand the neurological and behavioral effects of those drugs – especially given the known risks of opioid dependence, addiction, cognitive impairment, and hyperalgesia [7, 13, 14, 29, 43, 44].

Recently, Upadhyay and colleagues [55] demonstrated that prescription opioid-dependent patients evidenced a specific morphologic abnormality in the neural reward-processing network. In their cross-sectional study of 10 dependent individuals and 10 age-matched controls, the researchers found decreased gray matter volume in the bilateral amygdala. The amygdala is a key reward-modulating structure that is known to underlie opioid-related addiction, dependence, and tolerance [23, 26, 33, 36]. The results of the Upadhyay et al., paper adds to existing animal literature showing that opioid exposure has a broad range of effects on the amygdala, including decreased mu-opioid receptor sensitivity [40], modulated GABAA receptor functioning [58], and modified glutamate receptor targeting

snip

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138838/

[Victoria33]

How about continuing that article to the next paragraph:

"Despite interesting preliminary evidence suggesting opioid-induced brain changes in humans, significant gaps in the literature remain. First, existing cross-sectional studies do not allow us to say with certainty that the observed brain abnormalities are a direct consequence of opioid administration (as opposed to a neural predisposition for opioid dependency).

Second, current human data are based on opioid-dependent individuals, and may not accurately reflect cases in which the opioids are legitimately prescribed for chronic pain, and taken exactly as prescribed."

The above paragraph is why I take them and why other people here take them and we are not taking a hand full at one time - we take them exactly as prescribed.

[GtHawk]

This line makes it hard for me to take the article seriously.

Hydrocodone, a moderately-powerful opioid, was dispensed in the United States more than any other drug in 2008 – over 128 million times

Are aspirin, acetomenaphen and ibuprofen not drugs any more?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/worlds-wonder-drug/Feb 10, 2004 - Americans take 29 billion aspirin every year.

https://nybc.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/28-billion-doses-of-acetaminophen-per-year-sold-in-the-us-liver-damage-caused-by-acetaminophen-leads-to-400-deaths-and-42000-hospitalizationsyear-why-not-recommend-nac-n-acetylcysteine-as-antido/
www.scheikundeinbedrijf.nl/content/Modules/Modulenaam/Files/case.pdf
A Greener Synthesis of Ibuprofen Which. Creates Less Waste and ... produce from a chemical reaction is almost as important as what one ... Since about 30 million lb of ibuprofen are pro- duced each year, this


I realize that the claim in the article was for 2008, but I doubt that things changed that much.

https://www.thebalance.com/the-most-prescribed-medications-by-drug-class-2663215

https://www.webmd.com/drug-medication/news/20150508/most-prescribed-top-selling-drugs

https://www.lowestmed.com/top-50-prescription-drugs-filled/

[Victoria33]

@GtHawk

I knew an elderly woman who took aspirin for arthritis - the aspirin ate a hole in her stomach and she was bleeding internally and had to be rushed to a hospital to save her life.  Any medicine can be harmful if not taken right.  Perhaps Trump should shut down all drugstores and thereby save our lives, except for those of us who will die, but that is okay, he stopped people taking medicine. /Sarcastic

[Frank Cannon]

Bleh. I heard this shit before 30 years ago....

[DB]

One size fits all government from the top down.

Exactly what the founders were trying to avoid.

And here we are.

[GtHawk]

@GtHawk

I knew an elderly woman who took aspirin for arthritis - the aspirin ate a hole in her stomach and she was bleeding internally and had to be rushed to a hospital to save her life.  Any medicine can be harmful if not taken right.  Perhaps Trump should shut down all drugstores and thereby save our lives, except for those of us who will die, but that is okay, he stopped people taking medicine. /Sarcastic

@Victoria33
Per CDC From 1999 to 2016, more than 200,000 people have died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids.

"Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone." (Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Recent Considerations in Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Gastropathy”, The American Journal of Medicine, July 27, 1998, p. 31S)
So if I use the same 17 year period, 17 X 16,500 = 280,500.

Furthermore, the FDA state that, during the 1990s, unintentional acetaminophen overdose was responsible for around 56,000 emergency department visits, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 458 deaths each year. So 17 X 458 (and that was for the 90's) = 7,786

It seems inarguable that what we really need is a war on OTC medications! But by all means let's go after the Boogeyman with the scarier name.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

How many chronic pain patients commit suicide because they cannot get their doctor to prescribe appropriate medication to give them relief from pain?

[GtHawk]

How many chronic pain patients commit suicide because they cannot get their doctor to prescribe appropriate medication to give them relief from pain?

I don't know the answer to that But I do know that when my father was dying and in tremendous pain his doctor declined to prescribe appropriate relief because, are you ready for this, he told my mother he didn't want my dad to get addicted! So I went and had a discussion with this medical professional and the nicest thing I said was only a moron would used the fear of addiction as reason to deny a dying 90 year old man relief from pain. I walked away only after he called in a prescription for morphine patches and Oxycodone so if one wasn't working we could try the other.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Let me say something here:

Everything you do changes your brain. Forever.

If you get in a car accident, that accident is hard wired into your brain. Every action and event that happens to you changes your brain. Permanently. That's how the concept of memory works.

That is how the brain works.

[rustynail]

Why the lawyers are not going after acetaminophen is a mystery to me.