Opioid pain relievers or narcotic pain relievers With prescription they reduce pain very effectively. However, their adverse effects are very varied, as is the serious risk of addiction they entail. Now, a team of researchers have discovered a link between chronic use of pain-relieving medications and increased risk of developing major depression.
The study, which was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine on October 31, analyzed the data of medical records of about 50.000 patients who had no history of opioid use or depression and were subsequently prescribed opioid analgesics.
According to the results, patients who took opioids for 180 days or more had a 53 percent increased risk of developing an episode of depression. Those who used opioids for 90 to 180 days had a 25 percent higher risk compared to those patients who took opioids for 1 to 89 days.
"These findings suggest that "The more a person is exposed to opioid pain relievers, the greater their risk of developing depression."said Jeffrey Scherrer, associate professor of family and community medicine at Saint Louis University and principal investigator of the study. "Opioids have been recognized as a very effective method of relieving pain and suffering, but reports of their adverse effects are abundant and continue to emerge."
Scherrer said that although there is no clear evidence on the mechanisms by which opioids may contribute to the development of depression in a patient, there may be several factors that lead to it. One hypothesis is that the ingestion of opioids acts in the brain as a “reward system” at a higher level than normal. This means that chronic use of narcotic pain relievers can raise a person's threshold for experiencing the pleasure of natural rewards (such as a good dinner or a good walk).
The study also suggests that The higher the dose of opioid pain relievers, the greater the risk of depression.
"Preliminary evidence suggests that if the person is able to moderate and maintain low doses of these medications daily, the risk of developing depression will be lower"Scherrer said.
Scherrer says that although patients taking these types of medications are not very common, the risk of developing depression can affect their quality of life and their ability to cope with chronic pain. Recent studies indicate that Prescription opioid painkiller use has recently quintupled.
«Although the risk is not very great, there is enough exposure for us to have "a public health problem"Scherrer said.