Chronic pain is the WRONG WORD. Intractable pain, also known as Intractable Pain Disease or IP, is a severe, constant pain that is not curable by any known means and which causes a bed or house-bound state and early death if not adequately treated, usually with opioids and/or interventional procedures.
This is a STREET JUNKIES DREAM BILL, we as taxpayers are going to be paying for. as patients will commit Suicide as there is no other alternative but prescription opioids to treat their conditions. Younger Veterans from the 2 wars we are still in are now committing Suicide in higher numbers.
7,000 rare disease will not be studied many existing ones are not profitable to research, they all come with a eleven and four letter words UNRELENTING PAIN.
I’m a physician. There are many many pain meds out there for the terminally ill patient with pain. What I’m seeing is the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic muscle-skeletal pain. People are taking 3 to 4 Percocet, or other opioids per day, so they can go to work....
Excuse me, but if you need to take 4 pain pills per day, to go to work, you’re not fit for work.
Secondly, some good studies out there showing that Tylenol is AS EFFECTIVE in controlling chronic pain, (and acute pain in ED) as the opioids.
There’s a prescription and abuse problem out there. I was blind to it, not anymore.
This is a lie.
Ping to self
Opioid use HAS NO PURPOSE IN HANDLING CHRONIC PAIN. Unless you are near the end of life, opioids used for long term pain is just producing addicts. Yes it may work, sort of. But its not working by getting rid of pain. It works by getting rid of your ability to care about pain. If you use opioids for chronic pain you are a junkie. Maybe you are a high functioning junkie, but a junkie none the less and you will have an early end.
100 million in chronic pain? Color me skeptical. How is this bill a junkie’s dream? It seems to me the bill tries to restrict access of illegal opioids and expand treatment.
As far as vet suicides, I’m not an expert on the subject but a good portion of those would have to be a caused by something other than physical pain, psychological damage as an example.
As far as access at pharmacies, that would seem to be a problem, a legal one as well as one of access.
This opioid crack down is a crock. People who responsibly use Norco are being cut off because of morons who abuse drugs. Years of construction or fire fighting can take a toll on your body and when you get older you need something that can take the edge off of pain. A Norco once or twice a week is not opioid addiction. I think once you hit 60 years old there should be no pain drug restrictions, especially if you can show you do not abuse them.
I agree mostly. Not sure of the numbers but people who have severe pain can not be expcted to take tylenol. It is absurd and cruel. Opiods work much better regardless of what a few studies that push the anti-opioid agenda say.
Do you honestly believe that 30% of the population of the United States are hobbled by intractable pain?
Certainly there are some like that, but if your numbers were true, We’d all be living like Charlie’s grandparents on Willie Wonka and not the strong productive society we are.
I see nothing in the bill that prevents doctors from treating their patients with opioids if they need them.
Now, I’ll warrant the proscribing opioids is fraught with danger for both addiction and fraud, but a good physician can help the patient manage potential addiction problems, and should know when he/she is being hoodwinked by fraudsters. No, that’s not perfect, but it can be done.
The bottom line is that opioids, along with many other medicines, are part of treating pain and those that really need them should discuss it with their doctor.
I’ve been prescribed many medicines that have not worked well and I let my doctor know in no uncertain terms that a drug is causing me problems and what the problem is, and I will not continue taking it.
On the other hand, I can tolerate most pain with ibuprofen or naproxen, except for teeth issues. I ask for stronger stuff and get it.
I don’t see anywhere in this bill that would change that.
Read Opiod Bill and thought WJC was stopping by White House ....
I was on opioids I did not like there side effects. I now take 4 prescription level ibuprofen tablets a day. I retired early because of pain. Doctors prefer to give drugs to recommending disability. Plus the government which I served in 2 professions for over 40 years drags their feet on my disability request. Better pain management and drug control are needed.
I wonder if the cartels like or don’t like this bill. Short term I could see them liking it, because shorterm maybe more will go look for their product on the street. Long term maybe it’s not good for them, because maybe less potential customers will get in the pipeline by having opiods prescribed.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders about the funding for Narcan, ha.
Freegards
This is strictly a crock. 100 million people suffering from chronic pain that require opioids to survive. Bunk. It is not possible and it is not even reasonable to consider treating long term pain with an addictive narcotic. If you do you will have just what we have, a nation of junkies. These drugs are for short term intense pain such as post surgical or accident while healing can take place.
Most people around here have not got a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of but we have TWO thriving “Pain” clinics here. Obamacare created this mess by providing unlimited medical care access to the poor. The drugs they get from unscrupulous doctors provide an income stream and the doctors make money. Pain clinics, pfft, nothing but a dishonest money making racket.
The doc on this thread is correct, four pain pills per day makes a person unworkable because you can’t work a junkie.
I know something about pain that stays with you. Lifting way too much when I was a kid, rodeoing, broken bones, repetitive stress injury from too many years at a keyboard have all taken their toll and yet I go on with only aspirin and maybe ibuprofen but it takes awhile to straighten up and get moving.
I went for my physical last week. Every time the doc asks if I have pain and I reply, “Of course.” Then he asks if I want something for it and I say no but he persists a pill will make it all better as if he is pushing drugs. We need to take fewer drugs not more. The chemical cocktail the some take was never considered in the drug interaction trials.
I don’t respect the medical industry but there are some respectful people in it. It is self-serving with built in conflicts of interest. This became automatic when it moved to a for profit status across the board. To get respect you need to behave respectfully. A respectful industry would self-police and shut down the pain clinics and not push drugs every night on national TV ads. It is not the military industrial complex we should fear, it is the medical industrial complex that is bent on shaking every last cent from our pockets before we die and stealing the nickels out of our eyes after we are dead. It is an industry that justifies its actions by holding us hostage because it and life are indispensable and infinitely valuable. Thing is, so are the services many others provide.
If only sick people used the medical services and only necessary and effective procedures were done it would be a much more effective but less lucrative business. Back surgery is the hysterectomy of the day and I’m sure there are other rackets just like it. An operation that costs $85,000 or more with a 35% questionable success rate. Only a charlatan would hold that out except to the most dire circumstances.
Opioids are at the heart of a racket to make money and it has gone out of control. Life has never been pain free but it has been drug free for most in times past and still we survived.
I had a hip replacement in 2010. My doctor said I could have as much vicodin as I wanted for 30 days but after that no refills. The first and only fill was for 90 am I was glad to have them, never used the whole bottle. Low dose narcotics work much better than ibuprofen I don’t care what anyone says.
Never got addicted and stopped using after the first week. Threw the leftovers out after the expiry date.
100 million Americans do not have INTRACTABLE pain. That would be one in three.