The Narcotic Bowel Syndrome: A Recent Update

The paradoxical development of chronic abdominal pain is an underrecognized side effect of opioid use. Narcotic bowel syndrome (NBS), occurring in a small proportion of chronic opioid users, consists of chronic or intermittent abdominal pain, which often increases in severity despite continued or escalating dosages of opioids prescribed to relieve pain.A PubMed search was conducted using terms such as "narcotic bowel syndrome" and "opioid...