I’ve been told before that opiates aren’t useful for chronic pain, but I always assumed that was due to the risk of addiction. I had major surgery recently and was on morphine in the hospital and Vicodin after leaving. I hardly experienced any pain from the surgical site while on the medications, but my chronic shoulder pain seemed to be unaffected. Can anyone explain why this would be the case?
In: Biology
“Chronic pain” is a kind of catch-all term for “[pain that lasts longer than the expected period of recovery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_pain).” [Chronic pain is not a single clinical entity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7736598/) and [management is complex](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7736454/); opioids are useful in some cases, unhelpful in others.
The statement that “opiates aren’t useful for chronic pain” may be rooted in the fact that current government hysteria over the “opioid crisis” makes prescribing opioids for chronic pain impractical for most physicians in the United States, whether it would help the patient lead a better life or not.
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