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Opioids Does anyone else think that opiates aren't actually that good painkillers?

B

burn out

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They are supposedly such good painkillers that they continue to be widely prescribed even they have a high potential for abuse and many are diverted to the black market. YOu would think that if doctors could find an equally effective but nonabusable painkiller, they'd switch to it right? But luckily that wont happen, for a while at least, because opiates are supposedly so effective.

Yet I have not experienced this to be the case. For instance, I burned my hand tonight and it hurts like hell. So what did I do? I went and shot up heroin and guess what? My hand STILL hurts like hell. I can feel pain just fine under the influence of opiates, they really dont help very much at all. Granted, I have a major tolerance. But the again, so do many pain patients and even when I didnt, I felt the same way. Opiates do not make your body numb.

My theory is that opiates get the patient high and provide some minute pain relief. But really the way they work is by getting you high, providing a bit of pain relief and calimg you down/relaxing you. They make you feel a lot better, so you're no longer freaking out about the pain. Thats also why its so hard to find a drug that competes with opiates. Because if it doesnt get the patient high, the patient is gonna prefer opiates.

The implications of what I am saying though, are that doctors could use other drugs to treat pain. I mean, I bet if you gave somene in pain MDMA they would feel a lot better too. Being high is what eases the pain. Anyone agree?

Now there are drugs which actually kill pain. For instance, ketamine, nitrous oxide and large doses of alcohol are capable of rendering you numb such that you would not feel the pain of a burn on your hand. I think if was really desperate for pain relief, I would reach for the K and not opium. The problem though, is the duration.
 
Opiates work on nerves that transmit dull pain, not sharp intense pain. So yeah they kick ass for things like my back pain but wouldn't work so well for burns. Unless you took enough to knock you out, but then you're getting into the danger zone of not waking up. You're right about that. Still we should be grateful that opiates exist can you imagine a world without morphine? I wouldn't want to live in that world.
 
Oddly enough, i kinda know what you mean. Its more like instead of taking the pain away, they make it so you dont care about it hurting anymore. It made sense to me lol, sorry.
 
I know what you are trying to say "burn out", and I agree with the whole addiction and numbing story, but I don't think there is, or ever will be, any other drug that would be even close to opiates for specific pain relief (in the short term I mean).
The only other drug class I can think of that would kill or dull a very specific pain would be a cortizone injection into the affected area. (but I have never had one and am only saying this from what a few people have told me, and none of those people have an addictive personality).
 
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Actually opioids are proven to be very effective pain killers, countless studies have been done chiefly with morphine.

Just because some people sell their scripts doesn't mean the legit patients should have to pay for their mistakes.
Morphine is like one of the oldest and time proven analgesics known to man.

Yes it's also heavily abused. An equally effective yet unabusable medication does not exist.
And ketamine, interesting but I would MUCH rather deal with opioid withdrawal instead of KPains..
 
They seem to work best for emotional pain. Moreso than ibuprofen/paracetamol.
 
I use percocet every day for the last what 10 years and it does make your body numb at least for me it does, quick story, was taking a bath lit some candles like the small tea light ones and i set my arm next to it not knowing it and I have a huge big ass burn behind my left arm, my body was so anaesthetized from the percocet I didnt even feel it happen. But they do work for my physical pain every day.
 
And the alternative is: alcohol? Carcinogenic, neuro/hepa/cardiotoxic.
Ketamine? Bladder and urinary tract damage.
APAP/Ibuprofen? Hepatoxic, gastrointestinal irritants.
 
When opiates are taken long-term they lose most of there pain management effectiveness.

Any real pain management drug is going to activate the brain's reward system. Whether it's an opiate or non-opiate such as nitrous, fentanyl, tramadol, etc. it's still going to enduce euphoria by nature of the brain's physiology.
 
Dread calm said:
Oddly enough, i kinda know what you mean. Its more like instead of taking the pain away, they make it so you dont care about it hurting anymore. It made sense to me lol, sorry.
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I agree 110%. Hence why they are my doc. Makes you not give two shits about anything. Your life could be in shambles but if you're high, it doesnt matter.

When you're on opiates you're content to sit around even if the world burns around you.
 
What opiates do is change your perception of pain.

When I started to use opiates it took all my pain away. My back and body did not hurt one bit.

When a 3 inch nail went into my foot it made most of my acute pain go away. It felt 10X better. I could walk on it but still has tenderness.

Opiates help block the way the body interpretes pain.

Think of it like a TV with a cable attached receiving an image. When it's plugged it you get full signal (pain). When the cable cord is removed you get no picture or loose the picture is distorted (opiates).

One principal that they theorize why opiates work is the Gate Therory. This Therory say the brain can only handle so many signals at once. Kinda like a bunch of people going threw a door at one time. Not everyone can enter at the same time. Depending on the size of the person or signal depends on if 1,2, or 3 people enter together.

They say opiates fill up the (pain) Gate Theory so your response to pain is lowered or gone.

It's true after a while opiates don't work like they did in the begaining. This is when you either go up (not so wise because your always going up) or down (very wise) to manage your tolerance.
 
opiates are also known for making pain worse in the long run..they do change the way your nervous system deals with pain but after a long time on them, it almost shifts in some people and makes the pain worse..there is a term for this but i forgot the name..it did for me, i started taking oxy and it worked for pain but after awhile my pain got worse..i got off them and pain lessened..
 
pain killers aren't meant to get rid of pain completely just to dull the pain and morphine doesn't work for shit for me oxycodone and hydromorphone are the two that work best for me different opioid drugs effect different people different ways maybe you haven't found one that works for you
 
I would see that oral opiates work mostly by not making one so aware or disturbed about a pain, but the pain still persist. IV oxycodone/morphine is a whole another story. When I experienced the worst pain of my life after and accident in hospital I really thought nothing in the world would make it go away. Back then I haven't had any opiate in my life. But the surprise came after IV oxycodone and the pain was just gone, not even tinyest ache was left. But of course it depends what kind of pain are we talking about.
 
I always though that the euphoria from opioids/opiates helps with pain since it takes your mind off of it. So the euphoria along with the analgesic properties are what makes them the gold standard for treating pain.

mrflowers00 said:
pain killers aren't meant to get rid of pain completely just to dull the pain and morphine doesn't work for shit for me oxycodone and hydromorphone are the two that work best for me different opioid drugs effect different people different ways maybe you haven't found one that works for you
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Yes, as with all medications each individual is unique, so patients should be treatment on a case by case basis.
 
belfort said:
opiates are also known for making pain worse in the long run..they do change the way your nervous system deals with pain but after a long time on them, it almost shifts in some people and makes the pain worse..there is a term for this but i forgot the name..it did for me, i started taking oxy and it worked for pain but after awhile my pain got worse..i got off them and pain lessened..
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I think it's called hyperalgia. People on opiate regiments can get this. I personally have not expierenced it.

When my medication did not cover the pain I took 1/2 of what I did at that point. It works fine for my pain now. But of course I still have bad days.

I have only had hyperalgia when I get the flu or cold. I had it really really bad nerve bone pain with illness before I got on opiates. Now it is so much less I think because of the opiates.
 
Tommyboy said:
I always though that the euphoria from opioids/opiates helps with pain since it takes your mind off of it. So the euphoria along with the analgesic properties are what makes them the gold standard for treating pain.
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I thought that the euphoria was a side effect of the medication and that if it was there or not didn't mean the meds weren't working for pain. I could be wrong. I do notice when I'm in that euphoric state it does work a lot better.
 
Zoeylynn said:
I thought that the euphoria was a side effect of the medication and that if it was there or not didn't mean the meds weren't working for pain. I could be wrong. I do notice when I'm in that euphoric state it does work a lot better.
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I think it's kind of both, it's an unintended, yet pleasurable side effect, that gives millions of acute and chronic pain patients around the world better quality of life, regardless of the extent to which they are euphoric. After you've been taking them for a while, I think most people lose the euphoria, but some certainly do retain it to some degree.

Tommyboy said:
I always though that the euphoria from opioids/opiates helps with pain since it takes your mind off of it. So the euphoria along with the analgesic properties are what makes them the gold standard for treating pain.



Yes, as with all medications each individual is unique, so patients should be treatment on a case by case basis.
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VERY interesting viewpoints, as they summarize my own thoughts on this subject.
 
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