Opioid analgesics, stigma, shame and identity

This chapter explores how the lives of individuals affected by the consumption of opioid analgesics for pain relief have often only been framed as clinical or public health concerns and have neglected important additional psychosocial consequences and in particular, stigma, shame and identity. The chapter provides an overview of the current issues relating to opioid analgesics before moving on to consider the significance of different forms of stigma, shame and identity work more broadly in a health context, and then providing key but arguably too infrequent, examples of where research has sought to explore the connection between opioid analgesic use and stigma, shame and identity. It is argued that greater recognition of these connections is needed for clinicians and the public, to recognise these under-represented but arguably significant adverse manifestations of opioid analgesic use for some.