Do Opioids Cause Acute Pain?

acute pain-a protective mechanism that alerts the individual to a condition or experiece that is immediately harmful

According to surveys, up to 80% of patients reported moderate to severe post-surgical pain, which can sometimes be left undertreated (Sinatra et al., 2005). Postoperative pain is generally managed with opioids, which carry numerous side effects. Side effects can be bothersome and possibly cause a delay in the postoperative healing process (Beard, Leslie, & Nemeth, 2011). IV acetaminophen can possibly decrease opioid consumption, minimize side effects, increase patient satisfaction, and decrease costs (Wininger et al., 2010). The purpose of this paper is to dive further into the research to present data on the effectiveness of IV acetaminophen in decreasing opioid usage and whether it produces an additive effect causing more effective pain management in the postop patient.

Opioid medications are frequently prescribed for severe pain. Opioids includes the pain medications like oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and fentanyl as well as the illegal drug heroin (American Society of Addiction Medication, 2016). Many people rely on these drugs to relieve their pain from surgery, active cancer, chronic pain and end of life care (WebMD, 2017). Studies from the 2012 National Health Interview show that over 11% of adults report having chronic pain (Dowell, Haegerich & Chou, 2016). The opioid epidemic is a significant issue for nursing on the main respect that there is currently a problem with over- prescribing of narcotics and the millions of people addicted to opioid medications

The CDC conducted a study to test the effects of longterm opioid use in adult patients dealing with chronic pain. It is estimated that 11.2% of adult patients suffer with some form of chronic pain lasting 3 months or more. The study utilized two styles of methodologies to assess and reach their findings, Meta-analysis and GRADE, Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation. Drawing information from patients being treated on a continues bases; palliative (hospice/nursing homes) and end of life care excluding those with an active cancer treatment. The study is meant to be an aid for clinicians as a guide that

The opioids produce analgesic effects no matter is endogenous or synthetic, including morphine, codeine and methadone. (3)Endogenous opioid peptides such as endorphins, enkephalins and dynorphins activate opioid receptors including mu-receptors (mainly), delta-receptors, kappa-receptors and ORL1 receptors to produce different effects. One of the non-analgesic effects is the disruption of sleep-wake behaviour by the opioids’ actions on the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO). The differences of the pharmacokinetic properties between the 3 opioids mentioned and the possible mechanisms of sleep-wake regulations will be discussed below.

1. The difference between acute pain and chronic pain is based on their characteristics such as causes, function, and neuron structure. Acute pain travels along the spinothalamic tract to the sensory-motor cortex, as chronic pain is less localized in the anterolateral pathway to the brainstem. The fibers that are used in acute pain are myelinated fibers that carry signals rapidly, and when there is no stimulation the signal stops. Unlike chronic pain where the fibers are unmyelinated, carry signals slowly, and the signal does not stop when stimulation stops. In chronic pain, there is also continuing tissue damage, as the nociceptive pathway neurons become more sensitive. In acute pain, there are tissue damages, but it is not continuous as

Acute Pain is detected by nociceptors which transmit electrical signals through the A-delta and C-fibres to the central nervous system from the pituitary gland (Steeds, 2013). In response to the signals from the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland synthesises beta-endorphins which bind to the mu receptors at the openings of the synaptic nerve terminals (Sprouse-Blum, Smith, Sugai & Parsa, 2010). Morphine is commonly used in the treatment and prevention of sever acute pain. To be an effective pain relief it must be absorbed into the bloodstream. If taken orally, the short lived drug has to make its way through various layers of mucus in the gastrointestinal tract before it eventually

Prescription pills have not been much of a harmful substance until this decade. The recent increase in those prescribed with pain and given very high doses of pain medication has been astonishing. Although these substances are intended to target the pain, most

Nociceptive pain is the pain experienced when the body is damaged by temperature, chemical, or mechanical means. When damage is caused, afferent neurons respond and the four phases of nociception result. Transduction occurs when the free ends of silent nociceptors convert toxic experience into an electrical current, leading to a nerve impulse. The nerve impulse is then transmitted to the dorsal root ganglion in the spinal cord, then the dorsal horn at the base of the brain and on to the brain, where it is recognised as pain. The perception of pain occurs when the electrical impulse leads to release of neurotransmitters from the nociceptor endings in the brain. It is further processed into a more specific sensation such as sharp, dull, aching

As the difficulty of analgesic therapies rises, establishment of the priorities of care must be forced in order to avert or diminish adverse events from occurring and to ensure that high quality and safe care is followed through. Opioid analgesia, in particular, remains to be the main primary pharmacologic intervention for managing pain in hospitalised patients. Although, while opioid use is generally safe for most patients, it may be associated with adverse effects, the most serious and severe opioid-related adverse event being respiratory depression (Davies et al.

Chronic pain management is a public health concern with substantial increases in the use of opioids for pain relief. There is a consistent growth in the number of opioids prescribed in the United States and the overdose from those drugs. Primary care providers play a vital role in balancing patients’ pain management needs with the risk of drug misuse and abuse. Today, medicine has made many significant advances to eliminate diseases, cure people and extend life, however, the cause of chronic pain is still struggling to understand and improve. Living a full and active life with pain is difficult. Therefore, it is important to reduce the sense of suffering to increase the level of functioning and quality of life. For that, one need to have the

Acute pain is a time limited response to a potentially dangerous stimuli; is often somatic in nature, referring to pain in the soft tissue, i.e. skin and muscle (Millan, 1999). For example, a model organism like a mouse exposed to a hot plate can induce behavior representative of acute pain. This form of pain is adaptive, in which the pain response can induce protective response behaviors, and thus can remove itself from the stimulus (Millan, 1999).

Pain, as IASP defines is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential damage to tissue, or described in terms of such damage." The person perceives pain due to different nociceptors present at the peripheral and central nervous system. Pain due to corrosive chemicals and temperature are detected through Transient Receptors Potential Vanilloid receptors like TRPV1(Caterina et al., 1997) and Mechanical pain is detected through receptors like TRPVA1(Lennertz et al., 2012) these are present at the periphery and are present at the axons of first order nerve fibers. These nerve fibers are of two kinds Aδ fibers (myelinated and fast conducting) and C fibers (non-myelinated and slow conducting) which are in the

Acute pain is the response given by a potentially harmful stimulus, is temporary in nature, and is often described as sharp, stinging, or throbbing. Common methods at inducing this response during experimentations with a model organism is through pricks of a needle or a hot plate.

Introduction The experience of acute pain is a primal way of understanding and responding to potentially hazardous environmental cues. The fundamental process underlying the conscious experience of pain is nociception (Boron and Boulpaep, 2017; Silverthorn and Johnson, 2016). This involves the transduction of chemical or physical stimuli into electrical signals which travel to the pain centres of the brain; namely the somatosensory cortex for perceiving the location and severity of pain, and the cingulate and insular cortex, which associate emotional unpleasantness to pain. Nociceptors are primary afferent sensory neurons located in peripheral tissues that can detect changes in their local environment. They are responsible for the initial