Talk about disappointment.
no way new analysis This suggests that millions of Americans suffering from chronic pain are being prescribed opioids that do little to relieve their pain.
To make matters worse, studies show that these drugs significantly increase the risk of serious side effects, including heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.
Across the United States, 51.6 million adults According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 in 5 people live with chronic pain. Of those, 17.1 million had pain that prevented them from working, doing their daily activities, or both.
Tramadol has been widely used to relieve this pain, with doctors writing 16 million prescriptions for the short-acting opioid in 2023 alone.
For a long time “a safer alternative” For more powerful opioids, tramadol is not as tightly regulated as other drugs in its class and is known for having fewer side effects and a lower risk of addiction.
Conflicting results from limited studies led a group of Danish scientists to ask: Is tramadol really effective and safe for treating chronic pain?
To find out, they reviewed 19 clinical trials involving 6,506 people taking tramadol to manage chronic pain caused by conditions such as fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, nerve damage or dysfunction.
The average age of participants was 58 years. Tablets were the main drug form and treatment duration ranged from 2 to 16 weeks.
A pooled analysis found that tramadol relieved some pain, but the effect was small and fell below the threshold considered clinically effective.
Eight clinical trials also found that tramadol users faced higher rates of serious side effects. Statistical analysis showed that over a follow-up period of 7 to 16 weeks, people were twice as likely to suffer drug-related harm compared to those who took a placebo.
This increased risk is primarily due to an increase in “heart disease,” including chest pain, coronary artery disease, and congestive heart failure.
Tramadol has also been shown to increase the risk of minor side effects, such as nausea, dizziness, constipation, and drowsiness.
The drug may be associated with a higher risk of certain cancers, but researchers said the short follow-up period made this finding “questionable.”
The research team acknowledged the high risk of bias in the study results, but pointed out that tramadol’s positive effects were likely exaggerated and negative effects were likely downplayed.
“The potential harms associated with tramadol use for pain management likely outweigh the limited benefits,” they concluded.
The findings were announced Tuesday. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine — Come as the United States continues to struggle with the opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives since it began in the late ’90s.
Research Results Up to 12% of people who receive opioid treatment for chronic pain eventually become addicted to or misuse the drugs, increasing the risk of side effects such as overdose.
President Trump declared the pandemic a national public health emergency in 2017, and the death toll has continued to rise in the years since.
“The number of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States increased from 49,860 in 2019 to 81,806 in 2022,” the study authors noted.
“Given these trends and current research findings, the use of tramadol and other opioids should be minimized to the greatest extent possible.”
