Many Researchers are seeing a possible second “pandemic” coming, this time not a virus, but an addiction. This time Opioid addiction is up for discussion due to the high rate of painkillers being prescribed to patients suffering from “long haulers”.
For every 1000 patients known to have “long haulers” 9% of patients received prescriptions for opioids along with 22% received benzodiazepines. Despite overcoming a viral disease now those with longer term effects are also suffering from addiction.
This recent study was done on veterans suffering from COVID-19 and reviewed over 73,000 patients in the VA system. The most common and lingering symptom that patients are suffering from is significant muscle and bone pain and frequent use of opioids has been a resort to treat this symptom.