[HARMRED] Opium Study Raises Questions About Opium-Derived Painkillers

[Allan Clear]

Anyone else find this an odd study with odd conclusion?

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Mark Kinzly <markkinzly at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Opium Study Raises Questions About Opium-Derived Painkillers
>
>  <http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/research>
>  [image: poppy and syringe]
>
> A new study that links opium use with serious health problems, including
> cancer, circulatory diseases and respiratory problems, has implications for
> opium-derived painkillers such as morphine and codeine, CNN<http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/17/opium-study-raises-questions-about-painkillers/?hpt=he_c2>reports.
>
> The study of more than 50,000 people in Iran found an 86 percent increased
> likelihood of death from major causes among those who used opium, even at
> modest levels. The researchers took into account factors such as poverty
> and cigarette smoking, which could affect the outcome. The article notes
> the study does not prove opium causes the increased risk of death, since it
> did not randomly assign participants to use opium or not.
>
> Most opium users in the study did not begin taking the drug because of a
> pre-existing illness, the researchers reported in the British Medical
> Journal <http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2502>.
>
> In an accompanying editorial <http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2617>,
> Irfan Dhalla, of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, noted other research
> has supported the conclusion that there is an increased risk of death from
> opioids apart from the chance of an accidental overdose. “For the
> management of chronic non-cancer pain, a better prescription may be
> caution,” Dhalla wrote.
>
>
>
> **
>
> OUR CALLING IS THE PLACE WHERE OUR INNER JOY AND OUR INNER TERROR MEET
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1NIBD2KZtI&feature=related
> http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741
> http://overdoseprevention.blogspot.com/
>
> Mark Kinzly
>
> 2 Thunder Hill
>
> York, ME 03909
>
> markkinzly at yahoo.com
>
> 860-724-5339
>
> _______________________________________________
> HARMRED mailing list
> HARMRED at drcnet.org
> http://drcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/harmred
>
>


-- 
Allan Clear
Executive Director
Harm Reduction Coalition
22 West 27th Street, 5th Fl
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-213-6376 ext 11
Fax: 212-213-6582
http://www.harmreduction.org

Donate to HRC http://www.harmreduction.org/donate
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://drcnet.org/pipermail/harmred/attachments/20120419/6ae35296/attachment.html