Opioid

Opioids are substances that, when reaching opioid receptors, have effects similar to those of morphine. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid use disorder, reversing opioid overdose, suppressing cough. Extremely potent opioids such as carfentanil are approved only for veterinary use.

About Opioid in brief

Summary Opioid Opioids are substances that, when reaching opioid receptors, have effects similar to those of morphine. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid use disorder, reversing opioid overdose, suppressing cough. Extremely potent opioids such as carfentanil are approved only for veterinary use. Opioid drugs include partial agonists, like the anti-diarrhea drug loperamide and antagonists like naloxegol for opioid-induced constipation. 69,000 people worldwide die of opioid overdose each year and 15 million people have an opioid addiction. In 2013, between 28 and 38 million people used opioids illicitly. In 2011, an estimated 4 million people in the United States used opioids recreationally or were dependent on them. The efficacy of using opioids to lessen neuropathic pain is uncertain. If used in chronic pain, the benefits should be cautiously reassessed at least every three months. In many cases, opioids are a successful long-term care strategy for those with chronic cancer pain. Just over half of all states in the US have enacted that restrict the dispensing of opioids for acute pain. Guidelines have suggested that the risk of greater benefits when used for most non-cancer chronic conditions including back pain, and fibromyalgia, is greater than their harms. Some chronic painkillers are preferentially treated with other drugs like ibupamol or ibuprofen or naproxen. This includes paracetamolacetamin or NSAIDs like ibudac or naprofen.

The effectiveness of these drugs is uncertain and should be reassessed after at least three months of use. In some jurisdictions all controlled drugs are legally classified as narcotics. The term can have pejorative connotations and its use is generally discouraged where that is the case. The weak opioid codeine, in low doses and combined with one or more other drugs, is commonly available without a prescription and can be used to treat mild pain. Other opioids are usually reserved for the relief of moderate to severe pain. This is due to their rapid onset, efficacy, and reduced risk of dependence. However, a new report showed a clear risk of prolonged opioid use when opioid analgesics are initiated for an acute pain management following surgery or trauma. They have also been found to be important in palliative care to help with the severe, chronic, disabling pain that may occur in some terminal conditions such as cancer and degenerative conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. The effects of opioids on the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract are similar to morphine. The euphoria attracts recreational use and frequent, escalating recreational use of opioids typically results in addiction. An overdose or concurrent use with other depressant drugs like benzodiazepines or alcohol commonly results in death from respiratory depression. It is also loosely applied to any illegal or controlled psychoactive drug, and their source materials. The terms opiate and narcotic are sometimes encountered as synonyms for opioid.