Nearly one-third of the population in the United States lives with chronic pain, 4% of which use opioids to relieve their symptoms. Military veterans in an infantry brigade that returned from Afghanistan are experiencing much higher numbers, with 44% reporting having chronic pain and 15% using opioids.
Opioids are a type of painkiller that can be extremely addictive. They're typically prescribed for people who are in serious pain following a surgical procedure, for example. But many who suffer from chronic pain - or pain that lasts over three to six months - are prescribed these painkillers as a quick-fix to alleviate their symptoms. Doctors urge patients to be aware of their opioid use, as the drugs should not be used as a long term solution.
A study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, "Chronic Pain and Opioid Use in US Soldiers After Combat Deployment," documented the responses of over 2,500 soldiers three months after their return from Afghanistan. Many of these veterans (1,131) experienced chronic pain as a result of combat injuries. Over the counter medicine use was common in most of the veterans.
259 of the soldiers reported using opioids to treat their pain, with 144 of them describing their pain as mild and 17 reporting having no pain at all. The researchers were concerned with these findings because it suggested that the opioids were being abused or misused. 60 of the soldiers that reported chronic pain said they have used opioids every day in the past month.
This is likely to become a major issue because prescription opioid use has skyrocketed in the United States over the past 15 years, with overdoses and hospitalizations at an all-time high for misuse and abuse of the drug. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report a few years ago examining the rise in opioid use between 1999 and 2008. They found that there were 36,450 deaths due to drug overdose in 2008, and 14,800 of them were a result of opioid abuse. They also noted that opioid sales were four times greater in 2010 than they were in 1999.
Although the sample size for the study wasn't particularly comprehensive enough to draw a substantial, overarching conclusion, the results provide good insight on the issue based on previous research conducted on opioid use throughout the country. More than 45% of the respondents said they were injured in combat, and that number is likely accurate for veterans who served both in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Chronic pain and use of opioids carry the risk of functional impairment of America's fighting force," the researchers concluded. It's likely a larger study will be conducted on the use of opioids among military veterans after this analysis of 2,500 soldiers revealed startling results.
You can read more about the study in this Los Angeles Times article.
