Posted on 09/15/2013 7:50:03 AM PDT by Innovative
Patients should not be prescribed long-acting or extended-release opioid pain relievers unless they need daily, round-the-clock care for pain that can't be managed by any other means, the Food and Drug Administration has told doctors.
The new guidelines - meant to stem the country's growing epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction - will not place formal new restrictions on prescriptions by physicians, but administration officials hope to chasten physicians who prescribe the medications for anything other than ongoing, intractable pain.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
I have a new tag line unless you object.
Yes, I have been on morphine twice for a week or so. Kinda needed it. The severe amount of pain was reduced to zero after brain surgery, which was a little scary as I was afraid I’d move wrong or touch the affected areas. But I didn’t.
Then I went home and was lying in bed with the sound of the TV in the next room boring into my head like a drill. I lay there silently shedding tears in agony wishing for another shot. That was my understanding of addiction. However, oral opiates helped for a bit until they could remove the metal spacers a week later, which dramatically reduced the agony, and then I slowly recovered with no pain meds at all. Never had another desire for the drugs. Didn’t “enjoy” them in any recreational sense but sure as hell needed them.
Liberalism seeks out the eccentric to justify control over the normal.
This is a brilliant quote.
You wouldn’t believe all of the precautions I have to take in order to prescribe opiates to patients with chronic pain. The over-riding concern I have is maintaining my license and DEA number. Therefore, I do urine drug testing on each visit, frequently check the state court site for drug crimes, check the state database for doctor shoppers, and have patients sign paperwork holding me harmless for side effects/death. On each visit, patients must sign that they are not under investigation for drug and drug related crimes, and that they have not gone to another doctor for narcotics for chronic pain. I have camera surveillance for the public areas (we have observed non-patient individuals asking patients about their prescriptions in the office) and an armed security guard (very helpful for discharges).
I order to stay in practice, because of the DEA, I must consider that any patient could become an informant for the DEA. I must also profile new patients to determine whether they could an agent on a sting.
We have had patients bringing in urine in condoms, or trying to get their child to produce urine for them in the bathroom. We have had tandem teams come in with one person going to the bathroom and leaving urine for the patient who comes in next. We have patients shaving in opioid to test positive on the rapid screen to prove that they are taking the medications. We have had a patient use their cell phone to record activity in the clinic. (this patient told me this, so we don’t allow cell phones in the exam rooms) Nothing surprises me now.
If he didn’t he could win a trip to the Graybar Hotel. Pharmacists can be held responsible if they “should have known” that a script was illegitimate.
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against... We’re after power and we mean it... There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
- Ayn Rand, 1957 -
Ayn Rand wsa a visionary — unfortunately... yet people here today still don’t see it, until it will be way too late.
Government Seeking Inclusion of ‘Social and Behavioral’ Data in Health Records [more spying]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3066696/posts
Thank you for sharing your experience - scary, but I believe every word of it.
Doctors are forced to put the government threat over the treatment and well being of the patient... and it’s only going to get worse.
The other day a public radio station talked about pain medication. The retired head of MD Anderson Cancer pain clinic said the medications are a lifesaver for many.
He said the problem is any Doctor can prescribe them without the proper training and that is the problem.
I believe too, it’s best to regulate who can prescribe them rather than making criminals out of doctors. Highly addictive drugs should be in the hands of Pain Management doctors instead of any physician with a medical license.
I hope that all those, legislators, cops, prosecutors, bureaucrats, etc, who make it difficult, dangerous, expensive or illegal for the suffering to obtain the palliative drugs that they need, will die screaming and burn in hell.
Those people are not confused or unwise or mistaken. They are evil.
Wait till they are in the hospital with pain. They will be the first to request morphine.
I for one refuse pain medication (if possible) while in the hospital because I value a clear mind. But I have seen others in severe pain that clearly benefited from morphine while in the hospital.
I was chatting with my older brother the other night and he told me he was doing a property insurance inspection at a liquor store that is near several large retirement communities near the NJ shore and while he was there he noticed quite a few elderly folks buying whiskey and brandy. The owner of the liquor store told him that business has definitely increased among the older folks, a lot more elderly folks coming than ever before. When my brother asked him why that was; the liquor store owner said that a number of them told him that they couldn’t get their pain medications anymore so they pop several aspirins and wash it down with some booze in order to get some pain relief.
“Doctors used to be well acquainted with the patient and their reactions to different medications and would tailor them to the individual, but unfortunately most doctors don’t bother anymore and it’s only going to get worse.
Those who don’t fall into the “average patient” category will and are suffering — as you shared your and your wife’s experiences.”
My current Ortho pod/foot surgeon, listened to me and provided the alternatives, and he relayed my concerns and wishes to the Surgery Center Anesth. and the Rns.
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