Long-term Use of Opioids for Musculoskeletal Pain Incurs Major Risks
Key clinical point: The use of opioids for musculoskeletal pain for more than 3 months is associated with significantly increased risk for many adverse events, compared with single-prescription use.
Major finding: Long-term opioid users were 26% more likely to experience major trauma such as a bone fracture, compared with short-term opioid users.
Data source: Retrospective matched cohort study of almost 200,000 patients using opioids to manage musculoskeletal pain in the United Kingdom.
Disclosures: Dr. Bedson had no conflicts of interest to disclose.
AT RHEUMATOLOGY 2016
But how does the risk compare to long-term use of NSAIDs? Has the preference for opioids been mistaken as being safer?
“The problem is that we have started using these drugs and we don’t know if they work,” Dr. Bedson said. “So we are now at the point of identifying more and more risks, but do they do any good? So I think the jury is still out, and I think GPs have very little else to use at the moment because of the worries over anti-inflammatories, but from an anecdotal point of view I think people are beginning to swing back to using them again.”
Dr. Bedson had no conflicts of interest to disclose.
