Posted on 06/29/2023 9:25:39 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Opioid pain-relieving medicines are not more effective than a placebo in relieving acute back and neck pain and may even cause harm, according to a world-first trial.
Over 577 million people worldwide experience low back and neck pain at any one time.
The OPAL trial recruited close to 350 participants from 157 primary care and emergency department sites. Participants with acute-meaning sudden and generally short-term-back or neck pain were randomly allocated to a six-week course of a commonly prescribed opioid or a placebo.
Both groups also received standard care including advice to avoid bed rest and stay active. Participants were followed for 52 weeks.
Study results:
At six weeks, those who received opioids did not have better pain relief than those given the placebo.
Quality of life and pain outcomes at long-term follow-up were better in the placebo group.
Patients who received opioids were at a small but significantly higher risk of opioid misuse 12-months after their short course of medication.
The research team says that according to current back and neck pain guidelines opioids can be considered as a last resort if all other pharmacological options have failed, however, this study is evidence that opioids should not be recommended at all.
"We have clearly shown there is no benefit to prescribing an opioid for pain management in people with acute back or neck pain, and in fact, it could cause harm in the long-term even with only a short course of treatment," said lead investigator Professor Christine Lin.
"Opioids should not be recommended for acute back and neck pain. Not even when other drug treatments are not able to be prescribed or have not been effective for a patient."
The study complements previous research into opioid use for chronic (long-term) low back pain which found a small treatment benefit.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Calcium fructoborate, a patented form, was the specific form used, but something comparable ought to happen with other boron types.
You can get calcium fructoborate in supplements I mentioned a post or two down in that thread, and also here, when back in stock:
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/p/swanson-ultra-vitamin-d-boron-60-caps
“the first 48 hours was hell on earth for the placebo group, while the morphine group actually wanted to continue living.”
I think you have pointed out the real flaw in the study.
.. Your point about the broken arm very clear.
6 weeks later it won’t matter if you had pain relief or not the 1st day ... but that 2end day may be a little tough.
They must have a new wonder drug in the wings just waiting to be pushed out on to the public. Some thing with a really good profit margin.
Sounds like employers in Australia have a vested interest in the medications employees are taking. Personally, I wouldn't want my employer or the U.S.'s DOL or OSHA meddling in my medical affairs any more than they already do.
“yep, big no for me on gabapentin - eye issues from it. Also totally ineffective for me during the 10-12 days I was on it until my eyesight was so blurry I thought I was going blind.”
A-ha! I just finished a round of gabapentin (prescribed for back pain) and toward the end I noticed my eyesight getting blurry and couldn’t figure out why. I thought it was excess FReeping.
I also have to watch uveitis/irits as it is but one component of the non-rheumatic immunological condition(s) that I have (AS/PsA). I’ve failed a number of prophylactic migraine meds as a result of eye-related side effects.
Sometimes side effects can be lived with for long enough to “get over/past them” as the body adjusts, other times they can’t. In cases like mine where I can’t distinguish if it is uveitis flares or the meds and I have to go get yet another vision screening/checkup and fight with my insurance about it, well you get where I’m going with that.
Understanding the root of my chronic pain was key to getting back to somewhat normal. My low back pain was mainly caused by my hips (FAI and labral tears) as well as axial disease in the SI area, and to some extent my neck (C5-7 have been surgically fused for about 15 years now). It was the slow speed at which I was healing from surgeries and injuries that drove my podiatrist (of all the docs I was seeing) to insist I needed to see a good rheumatologist. I’m glad she was paying attention to things other than just my feet (the striped appearance of my fingernails and toenails was one thing she mentioned).
I once had a 30 degree rotation in my lower spine due to a dirt bike racing accident. Surgeons wanted to cut with no guarantee I would ever walk again. Opioids were prescribed but I barf on them. Can’t take them.
A chiropractor studied my condition after x-rays and put everything back into place, including two herniated discs. His advice was to stay away from opioids and surgeons, and use Tylenol for pain. That worked great. It’s been 30 years later with zero complications from that incident.
I’ve never taken an opioid in my life, nor will I ever, yet I know all about the bad effects of them <-— why I won’t ever take them.
Another little bad effect of opioids they “forget” to tell you (but you can easily find out with a little Google searching) is called...
opioid induced hyperalgesia
That means the opioids will over time have the opposite effect and INCREASE pain.
I want to see you go through knee replacement surgery without oxycodone and fentanyl.
Or pass a bad kidney stone.
I f*cked my knee up falling off a ladder. Worst pain in my life. Took tylenol.
worst pain in my life was gallbladder issues/ gall stones. Worse than kidney stones (I had two surgeries within one year for that - one ESWL and one retrieval / laser). They gave me dilaudid for the gallbladder issue when I was in the ER. That helped, but didn’t totally alleviate the pain.
My knee buckled the other day, the pain was intense, but not the worst in my life. I go see a specialist for my knee next week.
I think they are. .... trust with my health ?...eeewwww
"South Australia is a very safe place to travel to, with over 90% of people aged 12 years and over double vaccinated against COVID-19."
safe and effective ......
Many people who are given opioid painkillers are under the mistaken impression that they will totally alleviate the pain.
They don’t. The medical profession needs to make this clear so as to set the patient’s expectations.
I never said that I was under the impression that opioids (or anything else for that matter) would totally alleviate pain. I merely stated my perception regarding the effectiveness of dilaudid for that specific issue at that time. The pain level was made tolerable, and it got me over the hump of intense acute pain so I could ride out the gall bladder attack without wanting to just be dead.
I’ll agree that many doctors or other medical professionals are not explaining things of this nature well enough. Many people do not do any research into their own conditions and treatments for them either.
Doesn't begin to compare with having your knee cut open, pried apart so a CNC milling machine can cut away bone, then wrenched back together with titanium and UHMW plastic substitutes. There's probably a video of the operation on the web somewhere. It's been done to me; I don't want to watch but you may enjoy it.
Don’t know about that, but I am fairly certain that the amount of pain I was in would have your average person running to the ER for pain meds.
I’ve known two people on long-term opioid therapy (neither suffering from cancer, which is supposedly the only recommended reason for long-term opioid therapy) and both acted/acts like they were/are stoned on something.
One of them has caused quite a few vehicle accidents (can’t imagine why) and runs to the ER all the time with a complaint of pain 10/10. He’s an addicted drug seeker, on Medicaid and SSI, so we get to pay for it. He got terminated from one pain doctor for that crap but it didn’t take him long to find another one.
Opioids are bad news, and the addicts won’t admit it, from what I’ve seen.
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