Long Term effects of pain med

[denaqueenbee]

I am seeking help with problems no doctor can find diagnosis.  I've taken Oxycontin for 7 years now, and need to know what effects others have had from long term use?

[sandee1818]

As in?

[Worried52]

I've been on Oxycontin for 10 years. I started at 10 mg and now am up to 40mg twice a day. I have chronic back pain after 2 failed surgeries and fibromyalgia. I too wonder what this is doing to my body. I know that if I'm a little late taking a dose I start to go through withdrawal and that is scary.

[franco1470]

I've been on oxycontin for seven years. I started at 40mg x 2/day after back surgery. Went up to 160mg/day for one month then began tapering down. Did a slow taper over
a few years. The med allowed me to function and work, the pain was too intense otherwise. I now take 20mg twice a day but have been at this level for two years,
my doctor thinks this might be as low as I can go. I want to switch to 10mg with something for the breakthrough pain. For people who are responsible with their medicine it is a very helpful drug. For many others it can destroy them.
For people who drink alcohol I think it may affect their liver. For anyone who takes pain meds long term they need to have their livers checked periodically.
My biggest negative effect is that I am tied into this town because I have a great doctor,
he was my GP long before a surgeon got me dependent on this stuff, but I can't move anywhere because I would never find another doctor who trusts me the same way.

[mareke]

Your doctor won’t tell you the long term effects of what you are taking because he probably doesn’t know or is unwilling to make an educated guess. I was on 400 mg of Tramadol a day (among other drugs that I sometimes took with the Tramadol) for 5 years and monitored myself in various ways. Using a digital home BP kit to monitor my BP I worked out that it would rise to roughly 160/100 about 2 hours after taking the Tramadol and then gradually drop back to at best borderline high BP of 140/90. Using a blood glucose monitoring kit I bought my blood sugar remained normal during the 5 years even though I gained 40 lb in weight (I’ve lost 30 lb of the weight since stopping taking Tramadol). My libido pretty much disappeared while on Tramadol but has now returned to normal since going off it. Liver function tests were normal while on Tramadol except once when I took other drugs along with Tramadol.

While on Tramadol I initially suffered constipation when I started taking it but the constipation subsided somewhat as my body got used to the stuff. When I stopped taking the Tramadol I suffered from quite severe irritable bowel syndrome for some time until my bowels eventually got back to normal. Had I stayed on Tramadol I’m guessing I would have shortened my lifespan by at least say 5 years (and probably more but I’ll never know) but now while I’m physically a lot healthier having lost 30 lb in weight and become much fitter with BP, libido and bowels back to normal I’m in a lot more pain.

Many of the effects of painkillers can be self monitored apart from things like liver and kidney function which the doctor will do for you. If your BP has risen significantly as a result of taking the painkillers and you are more inactive and have gained weight then you probably won’t live as long but depending on your pain problem you may consider that you have a better quality of life and that the shortened lifespan is worth the better quality of life. In my cases the doctor I see praises me for having stopped taking the Tramadol of my own accord and is happy that I will most likely live a longer but more pain filled life as opposed to a medicated probably shorter less pain filled life. At the moment I can just cope with my pain but I hope my pain levels don’t get any worse or I might once again opt for a shorter medicated life with less pain that is if I can find a doctor that respects my choice.

[1_bamboo_lover]

Your question is a good one, yet I wonder about something.  I have been on Oxycotin 60 mg every 8 hours, methadone, flexeril, xanax for 11 yrs.  I am concerned about my over-all health like any responsible person would be.  But,  the pain is so crushing that no matter what the meds may do  to by body,  without them I have NO quality of life.  It is curious that you could consider  adjusting dosage or meds.  How much pain do you suffer with?

[AnonDH56]

I dont think they know yet but if you ever get off of opiates all together and you were like me, I had diarrhea for ten days. I think I preferred the constipation. Then I had trouble getting Lomitol since though not a narcotic, it is a Schedule 5 controlled substance and in the backwards town I live in, only one clinic in town would write for it, and I had to beg for a refill. There was no HI to it at all.

Good Luck.
DH

[lilhollywood]

Not to scare anyone but ive read in mens health and have seen on discovery that is someone taks oxycotin for more then a certain period of years, the medicine has side effects and it honestly smoothes out the brain. Not like paper but it has effects o make you have short term memory, your alot slower to do stuff... but its been a few months since i read it, i think it was more then 10-15 years for the side effects to start acting up.
im not making this up to scare anyone ive really read this stuff.

[Toomanyadvil]

Well, you have to take everything you read with a grain of salt unless its been without a doubt proven.  
I dont doubt long term opioid use has effects on your body but I havent read any information about it as of yet.  
I've been taking oxycontin for a little over 2 years and I havent noticed any side effects neurologicaly that concern me. The side effects which are a pain to me are the occasional itching and sometimes a foggy feeling if I eat sugar or a high carb meal close to my dose.  

Docs are never going to tell you what the long term effects could possibly be, and the truth is some of us are in way too much pain to actually have that be a deciding factor at the time.
.  
I know if not for opioids alot more people than already have with my condition would have ended there lives. Including myself.   Its bad enough people still are reaching that point with there pain, I say if it can save a life damn the side effects that MAY happen in a few decades.  Chronic Pain without medication is a suffering no one should have to live with on a daily basis
Thats only my two cents

[JVLB123]

I have a friend who suffers severe pain down her arm as the result of surgery to remove a piece of lung that had collapsed.  She is taking a combination of oxycotin and oxycodone (up to 10 a day) and has been on these pain killers for several years now.  She is only in her early 50s. Recently, she has been diagnosed with osteoporosis in her spine.  Coincidently, she now suffers pain in her jaw from a previous operation to fix an overbite and her teeth are sore and feel loose.  Does anyone know if long term use of these drugs leach calcium or reduce bone mineral density?  Has anyone had similar issues?