(Sad) Support for Prince Post Re: The Pain Just "Yells Louder.”

See May 2016 Archived Posts for more context

And (Bad) News for Those in Pain.

Years ago an ICU nurse told me how the withdrawal effect works in alcoholics. Not the details below, but the fact that the nervous system will send more and “louder” signals if it isn’t “listened to,” and when the alcohol that stifled those signals is “withdrawn” from the person, the anxiety caused by the overload that has been stifled causes “the shakes.”

Why wouldn’t the opioids do something similar to people as well? For years, I’ve told clients that withdrawal will make them more sensitive to physical pain, even if they were “only” using the morphine for emotional pain to start with.

News from a research team studying the effects of opioids may help explain the explosion in prescription pain-killer addictions of the last several years. A University of Colorado-Boulder study* has found that opioid use increases chronic pain in rats. If the same result holds true in humans, it would mean that prescribed opioids aren’t only viciously addictive, they also worsen the very condition they’re prescribed to treat.

In rats, what appears to happen after a few days of morphine treatment is the opioids send repeated signals to the glial cells, causing a “glial cascade.” In turn this cascade produces a cell signal from a protein called interleukin-1beta (IL-1b), which increases the activity of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain, resulting in intensified chronic pain that lasts several months.

The implications for people taking opioids like morphine, oxycodone and methadone are great, since we show the short-term decision to take such opioids can have devastating consequences of making pain worse and longer lasting, said Professor Linda Watkins of UC-Boulder. “This is a very ugly side to opioids that had not been recognized before.” (My emphases throughout.)

Again, try holding your breath for two minutes, until you go into “withdrawal” from oxygen and see if this level of discomfort can be overcome with “will power,” the subject of another post.

 (More) Bad News for Those in Pain: Apparently even carefully trying to limit their relief to a “6” is likely to result in at least some physical dependence. And if a person doesn’t do their best to taper off the meds and avoid dwelling on the emotional relief offered, they are also subject to adding psychological dependence to the mix, which some folks consider to be an essential criterion for “addiction,” but there are other perspectives as well.  

Another topic that deserves a post of its own. The important idea is this:

When you dance with the devil, it is easy to burn your feet.

A reminder to the medical community:

 “The first step for any physician is to be trained in addiction, safe prescribing practices and alternative treatments for chronic pain,” he said…A physician who suspects a patient may be abusing opiates should recommend a behavioral health assessment.”