Long term opiate use safe; One woman’s experience with Savella
There are two great articles from Karen Lee Richards in HealthCentral’s Chronic Pain Connection newsletter today.
The first, Long-Term Opioid Therapy – What Are the Effects?, brings us the results of Dr. Forest Tennant's ground-breaking study. He evaluated 24 chronic pain patients from 30 to 79 years old who had been using opioids for 10 to 35 years, and "concluded that the significant improvements in quality of life and physical functioning from opioid therapy are so positive they outweigh any negative complications, which can be easily managed."
Almost all of the patients (22 of 24) said their pain had permanently decreased over time. And the vast majority (20 of 24) felt their opioids still provided the same relief as when they started treatment. All of the patients reported one or more functions or activities they can do now that they couldn't do prior to beginning opioid therapy (i.e., get out of bed everyday, take walks, shop or visit friends).
The article details the patients' diagnoses and gives further information, and I encourage you to read the rest of it. While the study was small and obviously needs to be repeated with a larger group, this is marvelous news, and I for one and very grateful for Dr. Tennant's work and the participation of his subjects.
I have to say that I find HealthCentral's sites to be generaly decent, but the Chronic Pain Connection is outstanding. I encourage you to visit and subscribe to the newsletter.
Next, in One Patient’s Experience with Savella for Fibromyalgia, Richards brings us detailed feedback from one of her contacts, Brenda, who has been taking the new drug for seven weeks. Many of us have heard of Savella, but so few have had an opportunity to try it or know anyone who have that this article is very helpful in making a decision as to whether or not to ask our physicians for it. After reading about Brenda’s advice regarding insurance experiences, dealing with side effects, and positive results, I for one will be talking to my neurologist about a trial pack.
December 3, 2009
Tags: chronic pain, Forest Tennant, Karen Lee Richards, opiates, Savella Posted in: Fibromyalgia, Pain, Resources, treatments
2 Responses
On behalf of ChronicPainConnection, I’d like to thank you for your very kind words. It means a lot to know that our site is helping to provide useful information and encouragement.
I also wanted to tell you that I love the title of your blog! So clever – and it projects such a wonderful, positive attitude. I appreciate your efforts here to educate and support people with fibromyalgia. – Karen
Thank you so much for bringing to light a credible study done on patients with chronic pain who have found that there can stil be quality of life in spite of severe chronic pain through long term use of opiate therapy. I have been on a strong dose of opiates for 15 years. Had I not been place on it, I most assuredly would have committed suicide by now. I have never been suspected of being “under the influence” of any substance. I can think and speak clearly and most of all I can live a fairly normal life. Because I have been on opiates for 32 out of my 61 years several pain specialists have explained that even if there were alternative treatments to relieve my pain (which is at multiple sites and of differing origins) it would be a very difficult course requiring years of emotional upheavals. My brain has been irrevocably changed at the cellular level where the opiate receptors are found and they may never recover their ability to produce endorphins that are found in the normal brain. I have accepted the inevitability of not trying to fix something that to me is not broken and take my pain meds along with my thyroid meds, my estrogen, and my blood pressure med. Considering my lifespan may not be much more than 20-25 years, I choose not to go down a path that would require the use of SSRI’s (which may or may not work and would probably have to be changed several times to get the right one); I would also have to face decades of deep depression. many visits to a psychiatrist among other therapies. Although my conditions are not at all static (I have recently developed severe muscle spasms in my upper and lower back due to bone spurs on the vertebrae, I will deal with this additional issues as they occur. Unfortunately so many doctors have made me feel like a drug addict or drug seeker, that it was truly refreshing to learn that there are others out there living their lives to a full extent thanks to the oldest and most respected pain medication on earth.
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