1 in 5 surgical weight-loss patients take prescription opioids seven years after surgery

(University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences) While the proportion of adults with severe obesity using prescription opioids initially declines in the months after bariatric surgery, it increases within a matter of years, eventually surpassing pre-surgery rates of patients using the potentially addictive pain medications, according to new research from a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded multicenter study led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.