[sniperjoe360]

Hi, I prescribe opiates often as a cancer doc. Opiates act on the central nervous system and decrease the perception of pain but don't address the pain itself. They are quite useful in the short term as bridging therapy (a few days to weeks) analgesia while you work as hard and as quickly as possible to address the physical cause of pain.

On the same token, there are great alternatives too. For musculoskeletal pain, a combination of 1000mg Tylenol and 800mg Ibuprofen all at once has efficacy close to that of low dose opiates. This regimen however carries increased kidney and liver injury.

There are also less addictive opiates such as tramadol (rate of addiction 1 in 100,000).

But again, all of the above is simply to mask the pain. The most important aspect is quick and vigorous pain source control.