Opioid medications given to patients to help relieve serious forms of pain could in fact worsen suffering, it has been claimed.

Writing an article for the Pain Topics Website, associate professor of nursing at the at the UCLA School of Nursing in Los Angeles Peggy Compton said that in certain cases, the administration of opioids can lead to a diminished tolerance for pain - opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH).

She notes that the changes to the nervous system can take place as a result of exposure to opioids and as a result some patients can in fact feel as if they are experiencing more pain when they have been given some pain-relief inducing drugs.

However, she does note that past use has revealed opioid use to be an effective treatment for the relief of cancer pain and suggests that physicians should not be concerned about inducing OIH, particularly when clinically necessary. However, prescribing long-acting opioids or rotating the use of them could help to reduce the chances of OIH, she says.

Opioids can either be naturally derived opiates or synthetically produced agents with similar properties, Pain Topics reports.

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