There is little to no evidence to suggest opioids are effective for the treatment of long-term chronic pain, A US White Paper concludes. 

The paper, the final report of a seven-member panel convened by the National Institute of Health late last year, concludes that many of the studies used to justify the prescription of these drugs were either poorly conducted or of insufficient duration.

Despite this, the number of prescriptions have more than tripled in the US over the past 20 years, with more than 219 million prescriptions written in 2011, the report states.

One of the authors Dr. David Steffens, chair of the psychiatry department at UConn Health said the level of opioid use and abuse was unprecedented in the world: the United States, with just 4.6 percent of the world’s population, consumes 80 percent of the world’s opioid drugs, a fact that makes this “a peculiarly American problem.”

According to Steffens one of the great challenges is the fact that opioid drugs clearly are an effective treatment for some people dealing with pain, and it’s difficult to know when problems of addiction may arise. 

“There are certain syndromes, like fibromyalgia, where opioids are less likely to be effective and patients are more likely get into trouble with abuse,” he said.