Opioids No Better Than Common Painkillers as Overdoses Soar
- First long-term study finds no benefit in back pain, arthritis
- ER visits for opioid overdoses surge 30%, new CDC data show
Photographer: Antoine Antoniol/Bloomberg
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Doctors and patients have long assumed that opioids are uniquely powerful medicines for chronic pain, even as opioid-related overdoses continue to rise. But it turns out that this reputation may be a myth.
A government-funded study published Tuesday is among the first long-term analysis to compare opioids like oxycodone and morphine to common painkillers such as acetaminophen in patients with chronic back pain and arthritis, researchers said.