When Opioids Make Pain Worse
So there is evidence that taking opioids in increasing dosages can sometimes make the pain worse instead of better. That’s a good reason to avoid opioids, if you can. They don’t really know though if the increased pain is because the body is building a tolerance to the opioids or if it the opioids are inducing hyperalgesia, which makes the person more sensitive to pain. From one study at Stanford:
Scientists measured pain thresholds in patients with back pain before and after four months of oral morphine. The researchers found that the patients had become significantly more sensitive to pain by the study’s end.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/03/03/586621236/when-opioids-make-pain-worse
