ABSTRACT
Opioid therapy became a necessary component of pain management and often the only option left if injections, nonopioid medications, and other adjuncts failed. Physicians expecting to be able to treat pain simply and successfully may be unable to cope with the complex biopsychosocial problems associated with opioid dependence. Addiction is a chronic neurobiological disease produced by repeated exposure to an addictive drug, characterized by loss of control over drug use. The circumstances that combine to produce drug and opioid addiction can be considered in three categories: psychosocial factors, drug-related factors and genetic factors. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been conducted to test the analgesic efficacy of opioids for various chronic pain conditions, including the arthitides and various neuropathic pain conditions. Measured pain scales from the RCTs show a statistically significant improvement across all the studies, both in cases of painful arthitides and neuropathic pain.
