Long-Term Opioid Therapy Often Leads to Addiction

FRIDAY, July 29, 2011 (HealthDay News) — Addiction to prescription drugs is common among patients with chronic pain, with 35 percent of patients receiving long-term treatment with opioids now meeting the criteria for addiction, a new study has found.

In conducting the research, published in the July issue of the Journal of Addictive Diseases, researchers interviewed 705 people undergoing long-term opioid therapy for non-cancer pain between August 2007 and November 2008.

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