Tolerance to Opioid Pain Medications
Patients with chronic pain, their healthcare providers, and society, more generally, are all typically concerned about addiction to opioid pain medications. This concern is well founded. Once commonly thought of as rare,1, 2 it is now generally accepted that the true rate of addiction to such medications is much higher than what was once thought.3, 4 The issue of addiction to prescription opioid pain medications generates considerable debate among the stakeholders in the field of chronic pain management. There are strong voices for the continued use of such medications despite the rate of addiction and strong voices against the continued use of these medications because of the rate of addiction.
Opioid Management
Opioid, or narcotic, pain medications are beneficial in many ways. Patients with pain from terminal cancer benefit from their use. Patients benefit from their short-term use when recovering from an acute injury or following a painful surgical procedure. However, the long-term use of opioid medications for chronic, noncancer pain remains quite controversial.