The cardio-metabolic impact of taking commonly prescribed analgesic drugs in 133,401 UK Biobank participants

OBJECTIVE: There has been a significant increase in the prescribing of medication for chronic non-cancer pain. In a UK population sample, we aimed to assess cardio-metabolic (CM) health in those taking these chronic pain medications. METHODS: 133,401 participants from the UK Biobank cohort were studied. BMI, waist cm and hypertension were compared between those on drugs prescribed for chronic pain and CM drugs to those on CM drugs only. Multiple confounders were controlled for. RESULTS: Those taking opiates and CM drugs had the worst CM health profile with a 95%, 82% and 63% increased odds of reporting obesity, ‘very high risk’ waist circumference and hypertension, respectively (OR [95% CI] 1.95 [1.75–2.17], 1.82 [1.63–2.03], 1.63 [1.45–1.84]), compared to those on CM drugs alone. Those taking neuropathic pain medications and CM drugs also demonstrate worse CM profile than those taking CM drugs only. CONCLUSIONS: The impact of medications for chronic pain and sleep upon CM health and obesity is of concern for these classes of drugs which have been recently labelled as dependency forming medications. The results from this cross sectional study warrants further investigation and adds further support to calls for these medications to be prescribed for shorter periods.