Researchers at the University of Washington are sounding an alarm about the excessive use of opioid drugs to treat the discomfort sometimes experienced by patients with post-covid syndrome.
Think about that for a moment…
Physicians in the U.S. are prescribing opioids for post-covid patients. And they are doing it at what researchers describe as “alarming levels.”
The study looked at the records of roughly 87,000 COVID-19 patients, comparing them to approximately 5 million patients in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care databases as a control group.
This prescribing pattern comes after the U.S. just experienced a well-publicized two-decade-long health crisis of opioid addiction, overdoses, and deaths.
And it raises an obvious question.
Why?
Now, it’s a fact that some who contract COVID-19 experience post-covid joint and muscle pain.
But with so many safer pain treatment options available, why would any physician choose opioids to manage that pain?
Particularly when opioid overdoses have been skyrocketing in the last year.
It is an urgent and troubling question, one the AMA and other physician organizations need to address and address immediately.
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