Mega lawsuit over morphine-like painkillers
A major lawsuit was launched in America last week against manufacturers of heavy morphine-like painkillers such as oxycodone. Do you also use such a painkiller? 6 questions on this matter.
1 What’s going on?
Last week is the mega-trial started against the heavy painkiller industry in the United States, such as oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine. The charge is that these drugs are over-prescribed and dispensed without warnings about the addiction, which has left millions of Americans addicted. It is estimated that half a million Americans have died from addiction to heavy painkillers in the past 20 years. There have been many lawsuits, but this is a very big lawsuit against the manufacturers and the distributors.
2 Are these painkillers also widely used in the Netherlands?
Yes. In the Netherlands, 1 million people used a heavy opiate painkiller in 2020, according to the pharmaceutical key figures foundation. In 2008, that was 10 times less. More than half of the million users use an extra strong variant. The number of users of the heaviest painkillers decreased last year, after years of increase. But that may also be because there were fewer knee and hip operations due to the corona outbreak.
3 How bad is that?
In particular, general practitioner Jos van Bemmel from Amersfoort raised the alarm about this years ago in the professional journals and later also for the general public, such as in Plus Magazine. ‘A few years ago, oxycodone and related painkillers were only given for cancer. Nowadays you already get them with a collapsed vertebra, a hernia or bruised ribs’, said GP Van Bemmel in the interview in Plus Magazine (December 2018). His message: doctors have prescribed these heavy drugs too often, even for milder complaints.
4 Which painkillers are involved?
These are centrally acting painkillers of the opioid type. Examples include: oxycodone (Oxycontin, Oxynorm), tramadol, morphine, buprenorphine, and fentanyl, but there are more. You have them in pills, but also in other forms such as patches or nasal spray. Oxycodone is the most in the spotlight in the lawsuits because it is used the most and because it has been widely advertised, without warning about the addictive effect.
5 I also take this painkiller – what are the dangers?
The main disadvantages: it can make you confused, severely constipated (up to intestinal blockage) and become addicted to it. According to GP Van Bemmel, it is better not to use them for longer than two weeks. The risk increases with higher doses. Read about the other side effects here.
6 What alternatives are there?
The heavy painkillers are really intended for severe pain after, for example, surgery or cancer. If you are prescribed them for other pain, such as back pain, toothache or a bruised rib, always discuss with the doctor whether a less severe painkiller is possible. Think of paracetamol, or if that does not work enough, naproxen, ibuprofen or diclofenac. The latter substances have other side effects, such as stomach complaints, kidney damage and cardiovascular disease.
