The dangers of codeine as an arthritis pain relief method

The very idea of arthritis pain relief is a pretty contentious and controversial one, especially within the medical community and the reason for this is that the majority of arthritis pain relief will be derived from opiate based medication such as codeine. Specifically, there are fears that the line between genuine need and those who simply abuse the drug will become too blurred for the physician to make a reasonable and fair assessment of the best way forward.

Surely however the mere fact that people are suffer from the condition of arthritis means that they should be competently entitled to use arthritis pain relief such as codeine? The following is an overview of why codeine based medication is causing such an issue.

What is codeine?

In short, codeine is a commonly prescribed painkiller which also happens to be an opiate and which is used to reduce the intensity of pain by metabolising itself into morphine as soon as it enters into the liver.

Why is such a controversial topic?

One of the major problems with codeine is that like any other opiate, it has the potential to become highly addictive and so the person who is using it for the purposes of arthritis pain relief may find that in time, they come to depend on the codeine not for arthritis pain relief but rather, because their body then craves it. This can then form the beginning of a very unpleasant journey on a slippery slope that can ultimately result in addiction and toxic withdrawal.

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Another major bone of contention that critics of this form of arthritis pain relief have is that the actual effectiveness of the drug will eventually become impaired. The reason for this is that the body will steadily develop a tolerance towards the drug and therefore require larger amounts of it in order for the painkilling properties to be earned.

The reason that addiction is such an alarming issue is due to the fact that the abuse of codeine can cause long term, permanent damage to the wellbeing of the patient, resulting in liver malfunction and kidney failure.