Posted on 03/25/2006 4:46:56 PM PST by MRMEAN
Since 2001, the federal government has accelerated its pursuit of physicians it alleges are contributing to an increase of prescription-drug addiction. These highly publicized indictments and prosecutions have frightened many physicians out of the field of pain management, exacerbating an already serious health crisis—the widespread undertreatment of severe chronic pain.
(Excerpt) Read more at independent.org ...
DEA to cancer victims: You must suffer!
My tagline says it all... Bump!
Prescription drug malpractice is a pretty serious issue. Doctors have to wake up to the reality that doping up patients is not always in the patients' best interests.
They may be in too much pain to function but at least they're not addicted.
Often a poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and other factors contribute to aches and pains that would be better treated with a change in lifestyle.
Most pain medication is addictive and has always been so.
Well, this isn't the only reason they're avoiding prescribing pain medications. Once word gets out that you prescribe pain medications, you have a flood of people that will just show up at your office and demand appointments. Every addict (or those just looking for another fix) will come to your office, call relentlessly, and can sometimes get violent.
The General IM doc that follow won't prescribe those meds. At all. He'll refer patients elsewhere. He actually had a lunatic try to pull a knife on his receptionist when he did and refused to up the dosages.
I don't know how recently you've looked at the issue or how direct your experience is with the use of large-dose long term opiates but the chemical technology available today can keep pain manageable and patients alert and functioning normally in a way unavailable as recently as 10 years ago. My wife's bone cancer was made manageable in term of pain and she was still able to drive a car, teach school and live a normal life all thanks to Oxycontin, a time-release form of a morphine-like drug. It has made the news as an abuse drug because junkies crush the pills or dissolve them in water and destroy the time-release feature to get a quick and potent high but, as formulated, the drug is a wonderful weapon against debilitating pain
The only ones who seem to be immune from the DEA's depradations are those who are pumping millions of children full of psychoactives and sedatives.
Speaking from some personal experience I have seen what happens when doctors over-medicate and the results are downright ugly. Get the patient hooked on meds and you have a customer. Get enough and you have a thriving business. I'm not saying that is the norm but it happens enough to merit some scrutiny as doctors have been annointed with the power to decide on who gets access to the goodies.
Those in pain have made poor life style choices and deserve to suffer, right?
/jasper
Speaking from some personal experience I have seen what happens when doctors under-medicate or refuse to medicate and the results will break your heart.
I agree with you. My late wife was made comfortable the same way and drug.... right to the end. Too bad the drug abusers make things so rough for those in true need.
The innocent must suffer because the guilty are obnoxious.
You can always go to another doctor if you don't believe that they are being reasonably sympathetic to your cause.
Some people need a change in lifestyle so they have a better quality of life.
Do you disagree?
Would you say that grossly overweight people have knee pain or back pain that would be aleviated by losing weight and doing simple exercises?
And who better to enforce such changes than the omniscient, caring Federal Government!
However, if you choose to indulge yourself to the point of ill health, it ought not be the responsibility of the government to suggest mind altering powerful pain meds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.