From Health Day on 02/20/15:
FRIDAY, Feb. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- High doses of powerful narcotic painkillers appear to be linked to a higher risk of depression in patients, new research finds.
The study focuses on a class of prescription narcotic painkillers called opioids, which include drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin. While most people use the medicines to ease pain, widespread abuse of narcotic painkillers is also a growing concern.
The new study involved 355 patients in Texas who reported low back pain at an initial medical visit and still had the pain one and two years later.
Although the study couldn't prove cause-and-effect, people who used higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage their pain were more likely to have an increase in depression, the researchers found.
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Or maybe the depression caused increased suffering from pain leading to use/abuse of narcotics.
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