Wednesday, April 28, 2021 (Kaiser News) – Covid survivors are at risk of a possible second pandemic, this time opioid addiction, due to the high rate of pain medication prescribed to these patients, health experts say.
A new study in Nature found alarming rates of opioid use among covid survivors with persistent symptoms in Veterans Health Administration facilities. Approximately 10% of Covid survivors develop a “long Covid” that often struggles with frequently disabled health problems six months or more after being diagnosed.
For every 1,000 long-haul patients referred to as “long-haul” patients treated in a veterans’ facility, doctors wrote nine more opioid prescriptions than usual, along with 22 additional benzodiazepine prescriptions, including Xanax and other addictive pills used to treat anxiety.
Although previous studies have found many covid survivors have persistent health problems, the new article is the first to show they are using addictive drugs, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the main author of the paper.
He is concerned that even a seemingly small increase in inappropriate use of addictive pain relievers, given the large number of survivors, will result in a resurgence of the prescription opioid crisis. More than 3 million of the 31 million Americans infected with Covid develop long-term symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, depression, anxiety, and memory problems known as “brain fog”.
The new study also found that many patients experience significant muscle and bone pain.
Frequent use of opioids came as a surprise given concerns about their potential for addiction, said Al-Aly, director of research and education at the VA St. Louis Health Care System.
“Doctors should now be reluctant to prescribe opioids,” said Al-Aly, who examined more than 73,000 patients in the VA system. When Al-Aly saw the number of opioid prescriptions, he said he thought to himself, “Is this really going to happen all over again?”
Doctors must act now, before “it’s too late to do anything,” said Al-Aly. “We need to act now and make sure people get the care they need. We don’t want this to lead to a suicide crisis or any other opioid epidemic. “
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