Opioid medication

Opioids

Opioids are very good analgesics but they are rarely helpful for long term pain. If you have severe pain whilst you are taking a large dose of opioid medication, it means the drugs are not working and should be reduced or stopped. 

Side effects

Side effects are extremely common with opioids including:

Long term harms

Patients are at risk of several long-term harms including:

If you are suffering from any of these symptoms it is likely because of your opioid medicine. Reducing or stopping the drug will mean you will suffer less from these unpleasant side effects.

Patient testimonies about the harms of opioids

Here are two patient videos, produced by NHS England, that describe the potential harms of using strong opioid drugs to treat chronic pain:

Fay's story 

Describes, from her parent’s perspective, the sequence of events that ultimately led to her untimely death.

Sean's story 

Describes the impact opioid prescribing had on his life, and how he engaged with non-drug therapy that has been life-changing.

Further information

Further information can be found on the Opioids Aware website resource which has been produced for patients and healthcare professionals and aims to support safe prescribing of opioid medicines.

Information for patients

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