Cardiometabolic Health May Worsen With Pain Medication Use
Pain medications significantly increase the risk for obesity and other cardiometabolic conditions, according to the findings of a recent study.
For their study, the researchers compared the body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and incidence of hypertension among 133,401 participants enrolled in the UK biobank who were either receiving chronic pain and cardiometabolic medication or only cardiometabolic medication.
___________________________________________________________________________
RELATED CONTENT
Lowering Cardiometabolic Risk Begins With Change
Total Time vs Intensity of Exercise for Lowering Cardiometabolic Risk
___________________________________________________________________________
Compared with participants who only received cardiometabolic medication, those who received both cardiometabolic medication and opioids had worse cardiometabolic health profiles. Individuals who had received opioids and cardiometabolic medication had 95% increased odds of reporting obesity, 82% increased odds of having a “very high risk” waist circumference, and 63% increased odds for hypertension.
In addition, participants who had received neuropathic pain medication and cardiometabolic medication had worse cardiometabolic profiles compared with those who had only received cardiometabolic medication.
“The impact of medications for chronic pain and sleep upon [cardiometabolic] health and obesity is of concern for these classes of drugs, which have been recently labelled as dependency forming medications,” the researchers concluded. “The results from this cross-sectional study warrants further investigation and adds further support to calls for these medications to be prescribed for shorter periods.”
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
Cassidy S, Trenell MI, Anderson KN. The cardio-metabolic impact of taking commonly prescribed analgesic drugs in 133,401 UK Biobank participants [published online December 6, 2017]. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187982.