Indications of long term use opioid or narcotic use should only be suggested or applicable if the patient have pain severe enough to be prescribed a strong opioid/narcotic and no other options to effectively relieve the pain. There are sometimes no other ways to treat those severe pains without narcotics and if available, then unaffordable. Long-term effective opioid or narcotic therapy will definitely cause serious side effects like dizziness/nausea/vomiting tendency/constipation/physical dependence/tolerance/respiratory depression/delay gastric emptying/hyperalgesia/immunologic and hormonal dysfunction or impairment/muscle rigidness and myoclonus. Apart from the fact that opioids or narcotics can cause dependence and addiction due to environmental and genetical vulnerabilities.

Danger And Complications On Long Term Use Of Narcotics

Danger and complication respectively implies the ultimate fate and side effect that the narcotics doing cause. Common side effects or complications are dizziness, nausea, vomiting, constipation etc.

The most common ultimate fate and fatality is respiratory depression thus leading to death.

There is a high chance and possibility of this risk if narcotics are used in combination with benzo group drugs like Alprazolam, clonazepam, diazepam and other various kind of CNS depressant or tranquilizers. µ-opioid receptor agonists such as Narcotics (fentanyl, morphine) and other opioid painkillers can cause significant depression of respiratory function, due to binding at the µ-opioid receptors on the respiratory rhythm generating neurons in the brain stem, leading to the suppression of respiration.

Difference Between Narcotics Dependence And Addiction

Dependence is the state in which the person is dependent on that drug, cannot literally rely upon anything else and has no other way rather than that. Narcotic dependence occur due to highly exposed to the drug for a long time. This is not necessarily addiction.

Addiction has another definition to it. Narcotic addiction is both the dependency and an Co-factor that makes the person crave for it. And sometimes can show up with devastating consequences.

Indications of long term use physically dependent people, if withdraws that drug will typically face the withdrawal symptoms but severity depends on the span of time on that drug and drug characteristics. 

Dependency can lead to addiction if not handled by the physician. Thus can cause severe problems and complications in future.