Most people who need to take opioids on a long-term basis for chronic noncancer pain are understandably concerned about what kind of effect it will have on them. Many have mistakenly believed that opioids destroy both the body and the brain – and possibly even shorten lives. Although pain management experts have long contended that opioid therapy is not dangerous when properly administered, until now there has been no actual research on long-term opioid use (10 years or more) to back them...

