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. However, do you know the main reasons why a doctor will prescribe opioids?

Opioids are safe medications, but they can lead to addiction. When a person uses a large amount, the body therefore becomes accustomed to the drug and increasingly requires a larger amount to get the same effect.

The most commonly used compounds are hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine and codeine. There are many more, but these are just the ones with the largest safety margin.

What are prescription opioids used for?

People use prescription opioids to relieve severe pain and immediately improve a person’s quality of life. The 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 completely.

The first opioid ever used for this purpose was morphine. Doctors use a scale based on morphine (ie morphine has a value of 1). From there, a number indicates what percentage of effect the medicine they are to deliver has, to calculate the analgesic power of an opioid.

Opioid receptors are proteins that lie 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 dependence mechanism is accurate in these molecules when new receptors are synthesized with each dose. Thanks to the activation of the gene that is responsible for encoding the information for the protein in question. The activating signal is modulated with several receptors, and thus it becomes increasingly necessary to increase the dose. This works so that more particles can bind to surface receptors to cause the desired effect

Why would a doctor prescribe them?

Pain is the main reason why doctors prescribe opioids. When a person has chronic pain, mental and physical changes occur that worsen the quality of life.

In this type of situation, the only option is to prescribe less opioids. The analgesic effect of this subgroup of drugs is moderate, but they are easier to deal with.

However, strong opioids can be given when a person has severe 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 are given, you should only consume the amount that your doctor has indicated because it is the only way to avoid side effects. This type of medication is administered strictly under medical supervision. In addition to the dose, you must respect the interval between each dose and the breaks from them.

Side effects of prescription opioids

As mentioned above, the biggest drawback is the risk of addiction. Nevertheless, doctors prescribe these medications when there is no other analgesic alternative. Another thing to keep in mind is the common abuse of these drugs.

In this regard, people have no medical justification for using them other than the “pleasant” sensation produced by them, and that is what creates drug addiction. When this happens, the dependence is already so great that a person will find it very difficult if they leave them.

Finally, note that despite its bad reputation, opioids are very useful, not only for the great ability to relieve pain, but also to improve a person’s mood. This is very important in people with chronic illness, because it also improves the mental health.