Health Topic

Safe Opioid Use

Opioids are strong pain relievers. People who take them are at risk for opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose. These risks increase when opioids are misused.

Reviewed Reviewed by a registered pharmacistGeneral information

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Safe Opioid Use

Opioids, sometimes called narcotics, are a type of drug. They include strong prescription pain relievers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and tramadol. The illegal drug heroin is also an opioid.

A health care provider may give you a prescription opioid to reduce pain after you have had a major injury or surgery. You may get them if you have severe pain from health conditions like cancer. Some providers prescribe them for chronic pain.

Prescription opioids used for pain relief are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by your provider. However, people who take opioids are at risk for opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose. These risks increase when opioids are misused. Misuse can include taking more than your prescribed dose or taking it more often, using it to get high, or taking someone else's opioids.

First, you need to talk with your provider about whether you need to take opioids. You should discuss:

  • Whether there are other medicines or therapies that might treat your pain
  • The risks and benefits of taking opioids
  • Your medical history and if you or anyone in your family has a history of substance misuse, a drug addiction, or alcohol use disorder (AUD)
  • Any other medicines and supplements you are taking
  • How much alcohol you drink
  • If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant

If you and your provider decide that you need to take opioids, make sure that you understand:

  • How to take the medicine - how much and how often.
  • How long you will need to take the medicine.
  • What the possible side effects are.
  • How you should stop the medicines when you no longer need them. If you have been taking opioids for a while, it can be dangerous to just stop suddenly. You may need to get off the medicines slowly.
  • What the warning signs of addiction are, so you can watch for them. They include:
  • Regularly taking more medicine than you are supposed to
  • Taking someone else's opioids
  • Taking the medicine to get high
  • Mood swings, depression, and/or anxiety
  • Needing too much or too little sleep
  • Trouble making decisions
  • Feeling high or sedated

If you have a high risk for an overdose, you will want to get naloxone from a pharmacy and carry it with with you wherever you go. Naloxone is a medicine that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

You should always be careful when taking any medicine, but you need to take extra care when taking opioids:

  • Take your medicine exactly as prescribed - do not take extra doses.
  • Check the instructions every time you take a dose.
  • Do not break, chew, crush, or dissolve opioid pills.
  • Opioids can cause drowsiness. Do not drive or use any machinery that may injure you, especially when you first start the medicine.
  • Contact your provider if you have side effects.
  • If you can, use the same pharmacy for all your medicines. The pharmacy's computer system will alert the pharmacist if you are taking two or more medicines that could cause a dangerous interaction.

It is important to store and dispose of opioid medicines properly:

  • Store your opioids and other medicines in a safe place. If you have children at home, it's a good idea to store your medicines in a lockbox. Even one accidental dose of an opioid pain medicine meant for an adult can cause a fatal overdose in a child. Also, someone who lives with you or visits your house may look for and steal your opioid medicines to take or sell them.
  • If you travel, carry the current bottle of opioids with you for safety. This will help you answer any questions about your medicine.
  • Dispose of your unused medicine properly. If you have unused opioid medicines at the end of your treatment, you can get rid of them by:
  • Finding a local drug take-back program
  • Finding a pharmacy mail-back program
  • In some cases, flushing them down the toilet - check the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) web site to find out which ones you can flush away

It sits within Substance Use and Disorders.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Safe Opioid Use

18 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

Learn More

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Prescription Drug Misuse, Drug Overdose. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Safe Opioid Use, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.