Opioid Complications and Side Effects

Opioid complications and side effects.

Medications which bind to opioid receptors are increasingly being prescribed for the treatment of multiple and diverse chronic painful conditions. Their use for acute pain or terminal pain is well accepted. Their role in the long-term treatment of chronic noncancer pain is, however, controversial for many reasons. One of the primary reasons is the well-known phenomenon of psychological addictio...

Hypokalemia — Complications and Side Effects

Hypokalemia is a metabolic/endocrine disorder that is characterized by a plasma potassium level of less than 3.5 mEq/L. A serum potassium level that is less than 2.5 mEq/L leads to life threatening scenarios of arrhythmias and muscle paralysis. A normal level of potassium is necessary to maintain a charge difference between intracellular and extracellular environments which is the integral mech...

Lysergic acid diethylamide: side effects and complications.

Current management of opioid-related side effects.

The optimal management of opioid-related side effects is hampered by a lack of comparative studies of management strategies. The prevalence of such side effects is influenced by the extent of disease, the patient's age, the presence of coexistent renal and hepatic disease, pulmonary disease, and cognitive dysfunction, a prior opioid history, use of polypharmacy, dose of opioid drug being admini...

Opioid Therapy and its Side Effects: A Review.