What are the drawbacks to using short acting medications like Percocet Vicodin and morphine for chronic pain?

What are the drawbacks to using short acting medications like Percocet Vicodin and morphine for chronic pain?

Marc Darrow (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Joint Rehabilitation Sports Medical Center, Inc. ) gives expert video advice on: Are narcotics safe and effective for managing chronic pain?; Is there a danger of addiction when using narcotic medicine for pain? and more...

There are many forms of short-acting medications for chronic pain. The good news is they're short-acting, so they're out of your system fairly quickly. But the bad news is their onset is so quick that you get a little bit of a rush or euphoria from them. And the shorter acting a medication is like that, the more addictive potential it has. So if someone is taking Zanax for panic attacks, for pain or for relaxation, there's a high probability, if they're taking it regularly, that they're going to be addicted very quickly to that medication. Methadone on the other hand, may have some addictive potential but it has an extremely long half-life to it, and a person doesn't usually get the euphoric feeling when they first take it. Again if a person is injected or has an IV of something like morphine, they're not going to feel any pain, and they're going to have an addictive potential that is extremely high.