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DH has some old friends whose son killed himself after being taken off a prescription cold turkey rather than gradually.
If certain medications are lost or stolen, they will not be replaced. I know people receiving care through a pain-management center who are required to sign a contract for their medications. They can be called in for a drug test and/or a pill count. If anything is amiss, they will be dismissed/cut off whether or not it was their fault. One friend has roommates who take his pills. He runs low and suffers terrible pain until refill time.
Yet somehow, despite these precautions, people are getting and selling prescription medications.
There are Millions of people that suffer severe chronic pain that medical doctors and treatments have proven to be ineffective. Nerve damage, particularly back and spine related can leave a person in extended, long term agony, with the only mainstream medical option being pain medications.
The problem is, the phony politics of the war on drugs have created an environment of such strict and intrusive oversight requirements in many States for procedures controlling the prescribing of pain medicines, Doctors don't want to deal with it, so many just avoid prescribing them altogether.
The reality is, the truly effective pain meds are the narcotic/opiate based ones, and yes, they are addictive. And, long term use is not healthy. But, chronic pain isn't healthy either, as it represents a living hell for these people, and to deny people the pain relief benefits of opiate based medicines after other therapies have failed, is an extreme outrage.
Just another example of backwards logic and nanny state control.
Many years ago, I was hospitalized for a wound. I had surgery to repair the damage and was in a great deal of pain. I asked the nurse for pain meds, which she gave me, but then said something that stuck with me the rest of my life. She said.... "Nobody dies of pain, but many people die of drug addiction." I never forgot that.
I have had to take them when i had severe illnessess, or a very bad infection. Or after a surgery.
I do not abuse drugs in anyway, infact even when i get a migraine, i have a hard time taking something for it.
What is a disgrace, are those very Doctors who prescribe medications for those who do not need them. And these patients become dependent on the pills.
I had vicodin after a couple surgerys, and a very bad infection. I am not dependent on drugs, and only take them when i am very very ill. Knock on wood, been doing good for quite a while.
People who cannot tolerate pain, will go thru great lengths for the pain to go away.
Doctors who abuse the system, by writing out unnecessary prescriptions, are partly to blame.
DH has some old friends whose son killed himself after being taken off a prescription cold turkey rather than gradually.
If certain medications are lost or stolen, they will not be replaced. I know people receiving care through a pain-management center who are required to sign a contract for their medications. They can be called in for a drug test and/or a pill count. If anything is amiss, they will be dismissed/cut off whether or not it was their fault. One friend has roommates who take his pills. He runs low and suffers terrible pain until refill time.
Yet somehow, despite these precautions, people are getting and selling prescription medications.
My God-
I am a physician and am a specialist in pain medicine
1. the rate of addiction in a pain practice is 20-25%
2. addiction is different than tolerance. Tolerance occurs in many occasions, but addiction is less common.
3. All pain clinics require a "narcotics contract"
4. If there is a "violation" of that contract, due to aberrant behavior, a gradual wean down is prescribed (generally 10% per month).
5. We never "dismiss" abusers, we simply do not give them medicines that they WILL ABUSE.
6. Drug abuse/diversion programs are reccommended. However, many do not attend.
7. Giving someone simply what they want is not good medicine.
8. Tolerance and addiction are not the same thing.
9. Many patients, due to addictive personalities, are not good candidates for opioid pain medicines.
10. Not all pain is responsive to opioids
11. The use of narcotics for non malignant pain is controversial
12. There is no constitutional right to consume narcotic medicines for pain
LAYMEN ARE NOT PHYSICIANS AND ANECDOTES ARE NOT EQUAL TO RANDOMIZED, BLINDED PROSPECTIVE STUDIES.
Doctors these days are no better than legal street level drug dealers with the pharmaceutical industry being the S American legal cartels... is there really any difference these days?
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