April 23, AM. Getty Images. JavaScript is required. No time to read? Listen to the article instead:. All Research Topics. Community Health. Opioids can be prescription medications often referred to as painkillers, or they can be so-called street drugs, such as heroin.
Many prescription opioids are used to block pain signals between the brain and the body and are typically prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. Additional side effects can include slowed breathing, constipation, nausea, confusion and drowsiness.
Opioids are sometimes referred to as narcotics and although they do relieve pain, they do not fall into the same category as over-the-counter painkillers such as aspirin and Tylenol. Opioid use does not come without risks. Regular use of these prescribed medications can increase your tolerance and dependence, requiring higher and more frequent doses.
In addition, opioids can restrict your ability to breathe when taken at a higher dose, and when misused, can lead to a fatal overdose. Opioids, which can interact with diseases, too, should only be used if needed for pain, including if alternatives for pain control are not effective. Be sure to review your current medications and disclose any past or present drug use with your doctor when discussing whether an opioid prescription is right for you. Overuse of codeine when it is taken already combined with one of the simple analgesic drugs, can lead to paracetamol, aspirin or ibuprofen poisoning and even death.
Whilst paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin may seem harmless in normal doses, they can cause really serious problems in high doses — with risks of kidney failure, liver failure, and of severe damage to, or bleeding from, the stomach, which can be fatal. There's a particular risk of death due to inhaling vomit — because opiate painkillers can sedate you, can add to the risk of vomiting, and can stop you from coughing properly.
The vomit blocks the airways or later leads to pneumonia. In pregnancy, regularly having taken high doses of opiate painkillers for a continuous sustained period of time in the lead up to delivery can lead to withdrawal symptoms for the newborn baby.
For pregnant women who have been using substantial amounts of opiates daily for a period of time, it's not a good idea to stop using them suddenly without proper advice.
This is because this might increase their risk of having a miscarriage or having a premature labour. Women in such circumstances should seek medical advice before stopping. There are also risks from sharing needles, syringes and other equipment used for injecting — with the danger of developing serious tissue infections or sharing viral infections like hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV.
If the opiate painkiller has been prescribed properly as a medicine alone or mixed with other drugs such as paracetamol or ibuprofen , or obtained properly from your local pharmacy, the purity will be very high and the doses consumed will be predictable. If the opiate painkiller has been sourced illegally you cannot be sure what is in it and what effect it will have. Mixing any opiate painkillers with alcohol , or with other sedatives such as benzodiazepines , can have serious consequences: an overdose is more likely, and this can lead to a coma or respiratory failure and death.
Yes, any opiate painkiller can be addictive and produce 'cravings' and a psychological desire to keep on using. If opiate painkillers are taken primarily to get high or to manage psychological pain, the risk of becoming dependent on the drugs is greater. Tolerance can also build, so that users have to take more just to get the same effects or to avoid unpleasant withdrawals.
This is one of the reasons opiates can become ineffective for long-term chronic pain.
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