Opioid addiction risk factors

Opioids are most addictive when you take them using methods different from what was prescribed, such as crushing a pill so that it can be snorted or injected. This life-threatening practice is even more dangerous if the pill is a long- or extended-acting formulation. Rapidly delivering all the medicine to your body can cause an accidental overdose. Taking more than your prescribed dose of opioid medication, or more often than prescribed, also increases your risk of addiction.

The length of time you use prescribed opioids also plays a role. Researchers have found that taking opioid medications for more than a few days increases your risk of long-term use, which increases your risk of addiction. The odds you'll still be on opioids a year after starting a short course increase after only five days on opioids.

A number of additional factors — genetic, psychological and environmental — play a role in addiction, which can happen quickly or after many years of opioid use.

Known risk factors of opioid misuse and addiction include:

• Poverty
• Unemployment
• Family history of substance abuse
• Personal history of substance abuse
• Young age
• History of criminal activity or legal problems including DUIs
• Regular contact with high-risk people or high-risk environments
• Problems with past employers, family members and friends (mental disorder)
• Risk-taking or thrill-seeking behavior
• Heavy tobacco use
• History of severe depression or anxiety
• Stressful circumstances
• Prior drug or alcohol rehabilitation

In addition, women have a unique set of risk factors for opioid addiction. Women are more likely than men to have chronic pain. Compared with men, women are also more likely to be prescribed opioid medications, to be given higher doses and to use opioids for longer periods of time. Women may also have biological tendencies to become dependent on prescription pain relievers more quickly than are men.