What Are Prescription Opioids And What Are They Used For?
Prescription opioids are a group of drugs that interact with opioid receptors in the nervous system. The pharmacological effect occurs as a result of this association and thus relieves pain. But do you know what are the main reasons why a doctor prescribes opioids?
Opioids are safe drugs, but they can lead to addiction. So when a person has ingested a high amount, their body becomes accustomed to the drug and increasingly requires a larger amount to get the same effect.
What are prescription opioids used for?
People use prescription opioids to relieve severe pain and instantly improve a person’s quality of life. Their mechanism of action modulates the painful stimuli in the nervous system by interacting with opioid receptors.
As a result of this chain reaction, the intensity with which the body perceives pain decreases or disappears or it disappears completely.
Also read: Painkillers for rheumatoid arthritis
The first opioid ever used for this purpose was morphine. Doctors use a scale that takes morphine as a starting point (that is, morphine is the value 1). Then enter a number, the percentage of the effect of the medicine, to calculate the pain-relieving effect of an opioid.
Opioid receptors are proteins located on the surface of the cells of the central nervous system (such as in the brain, spinal cord, etc.). And they continue along the digestive tract.
The mechanism of dependence is found precisely in these molecules, as new receptors are synthesized with each dose thanks to the activation of the gene responsible for encoding the information for the particular protein.
The activating signal is modulated with several receptors, and therefore it becomes increasingly necessary to increase the dose. This is so that more particles can bind to surface receptors to cause the desired effect.
Why does a doctor prescribe them?
Pain is the main reason why doctors prescribe opioids. When a person is in chronic pain, mental and physical changes occur and worsen their quality of life.
In these types of situations, the only alternative is to prescribe smaller opioids. The analgesic effect of this subgroup of drugs is moderate, but they are easier to deal with.
However, larger opioids can be administered when a person has intense acute pain. This drug family is more potent, but they have a very narrow therapeutic margin, so addiction is very likely.
No matter what prescription opioids you get, you should only take the amount prescribed by your doctor as it is the only way to avoid side effects. These types of medications are administered strictly under medical supervision. In addition to the dose, respect the interval between each dose and the breaks from them.
Also read: How to treat headaches without medication
Side effects of prescription opioids
As mentioned above, the biggest drawback here is the risk of drug addiction. Still, doctors prescribe these types of medications when there is no other painkiller alternative. Another thing to keep in mind is the common misuse of these drugs for recreational use.
In this regard, humans have no medical justification for using them other than the “comfortable” sensation produced by them, and that is what creates addicts. When this happens, the addiction is already so great that a person gets withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking them.
As a last resort, note that despite their bad reputation, opioids are very useful not only for their amazing ability to relieve pain but also to improve a person’s mood.
People regain functional capacity and can perform tasks normally when pain is out of the equation. This is very important in people with chronic illness because it also improves their mental health.
