Many senior citizens suffer from chronic pain issues, and many doctors willingly prescribe legal opioids to help manage that pain. However, research says that the use of opioids–even those that are available as normal prescriptions or as controlled substances–tends to increase the mortality rate. It makes sense that those that need opioids would be more prone to passing away early, but many of the deaths that are associated with opioid usage are because of overdose. This is extremely sad, and probably very avoidable in most cases.
Pain needs to be alleviated in order to help people improve the quality of their lives, but these findings indicate that opioid use needs to be more tightly controlled. If this is the case for an elderly loved one in your family, alternative methods of pain control are necessary. First, remember that the best way to manage pain is to prevent it completely. Keeping your family in good physical shape is a good way to get started. Regular exercise, eating right, keeping weight under control, and physical therapy all are useful as preventative measures when it comes to keeping the body pain free.
There are studies that show that long term opioid use has a higher risk of premature death than short term use does. This should be an indicator that these drugs should be used sparingly and only for a little bit–if at all. They can be dangerous to use, and if they are misused, they can be deadly. They do serve a purpose, of course, but if you or a loved one is using prescription opioids, you need to ensure that they are being used exactly as they are prescribed.
There are a few other things to keep in mind, too. One, your elderly loved one’s doctor knows more about these things than you or I do. Yes, it’s important that pain is kept managed in as safe of a way as possible, but your doctor is most likely more than aware of the issues that are around and has taken them into consideration. It’s good to ask questions and even get a second opinion, but a reputable medical professional will likely have taken the mortality rate of prolonged opioid use into account.
Next, professional senior care is a good way to help with a lot of the mental health aspects that can become issues when pain is evident. For one, things like companionship, one to one attention, and assistance with daily tasks are built in with senior care, particularly in-home care where there is one person in need, and one person working as a caregiver. This makes sure that your mom or dad is able to get the attention that they need precisely when they need it, and that little issues can be dealt with right away. One of these things is medication management, and a professional caregiver is more than able to hand out meds in the correct manner at the correct time. This is one of the reasons why accidental (and potentially fatal) overdoses occur, and a fully trained caregiver can go a long way toward preventing this from happening.
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