A complex physical and emotional interaction

More than 110 million Americans—a third of the country—are estimated to struggle with chronic pain. Many of these patients will receive prescriptions for painkillers such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet. These medications belong to a class of drugs called opioids that are similar to morphine. Most patients are able to take these drugs without incident. For these patients, staying on long term opioid therapy may be a good option as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. 

While opioids give immediate and powerful pain relief, they can be problematic for some patients. Opioids don’t just act to dull physical discomfort, but emotional discomfort as well. The absence of feeling bad, after struggling with the burden of pain, naturally feels very liberating. 

Unfortunately, this feeling is not sustainable. As the body becomes more acclimated to opioids, their emotional numbing effects decrease and the negative feelings return—sometimes worse than before. The understandable response is to take larger doses, even while the drugs continue to be increasingly ineffective. To make matters worse, taking opioids over a long period of time reduces the brain’s ability to create its own necessary naturally occurring opioid neurotransmitters.

Without the ability to create the opioids that are part of our normal body chemistry, and with external opioids increasingly ineffective, opioid addiction may set in. Unchecked, this addiction can lead to misuse of prescription medication, alcohol abuse and the use of street drugs such as heroin.

The answer for those patients that have developed problems with “full opioids” may be the use of a “partial opioid.” A partial opioid is a very effective pain medication that has a safer profile than that of a full opioid. It normalizes brain chemistry, blocks the pleasurable effects of full opioids, relieves physiological cravings, and normalizes body functions without most of the negative effects of a full opioid. It exhibits a ceiling effect, which means that once a certain dosage level has been achieved, additional dosing does not produce additional effects, reducing the possibility of an overdose. Additionally, the withdrawal syndrome seen with a partial opioid is also much milder than that of full opioids. And research has shown that when provided at the proper dose, it has no adverse effects on a person’s intelligence, mental capability, physical functioning, or employability.