Patient was educated on side effects of opioid pain medications use as follows:
- Respiratory depression
- Opioid pain medications affect the respiratory center in the brain through action on the opioid receptors in the brain.
- This induces slowing down of respirations and the breathing pattern can become irregular.
- This can result in reduced gas exchange with elevated carbon dioxide and reduced oxygen levels in the body.
- Overdose of opioid pain medications can also cause respiratory arrest.
- Feeling of high and addiction
- Opioid pain medications, in the process of altering the perception of pain in the brain, promote more dopamine in the brain.
- Increased dopamine in the brain produces a feeling of high, by interacting with the brain’s reward circuit.
- This feeling of high, experienced by the individuals on opioid pain medications use, becomes highly desirable and thus adds the potential for addiction to opioid pain medications.
- This makes them one among the most commonly abused drug group.
- Tolerance and addiction
- Individuals taking opioid pain medications at a recommended dose for prolonged time develop tolerance to the drug and experience blunting of the therapeutic response to opioid pain medications at that dose.
- Diminishing therapeutic response prompts an individual to increase the dose of medication intake, to derive the desired effect.
- This sets the cycle for addiction and abuse.
- Withdrawal syndrome
- Reducing your dosage gradually over a period is the preferred way to quit opioid pain medications.
- Sudden withdrawal from opioid pain medications may induce intense unpleasant sensations, such as, nausea, vomiting, intense muscle aches, sleep disturbances, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.
