Pain Medicine Use Has Nearly Doubled

AP ^ | 8-19-2007 | FRANK BASS

[Cagey]

2007 Version of "The Graduate"

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr. McGuire: Pharmaceuticals

Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir?

[TomServo]

Oxycodone was a hard one to quit for me. Was prescribed after my back surgery.

Stuff put me in the best mood. I’d do anything for anybody.

I’d go out an roof a house for you if you asked. :-)

[from occupied ga]

The persecution of MDs who prescrib pain killers has gotten so bad that many are afraid to give adequate doses even to terminal cancer patients. After all it is far better that thousands of people die in pain than if they were to use (shudder) narcotics. After all they might get addicted, eh?

[ClearCase_guy]

I really like how they managed to dredge up Rush Limbaugh’s problem. Nice work by AP. Just what I expect.

[tajgirvan]

The picture on your homepage is breaktaking! Is that the New Jersey shore ?
This a painful world world we live in.And a greedy one.

[tajgirvan]

Agree 100%.

[4everontheRight]

I have a degenerating disk in my back and take Loratab for it. If I could find a way to ease the agony of it without pills I would in a skinny minute! My husband tells me to just “tough it out” but until you have experienced pain related to your back, you have no idea how bad it can be. I tell him to imagine a knife in your back and then imagine someone standing on that knife! Trouble with pain meds is that in order for them to really do you any good, you are supposed to take them prior to the pain starting...well, hello! How am I supposed to know when it will? In other words, you stay on them all the time!! My doses of Loratab have had to get larger due to my becoming used to them and them not being as effective. My doc said my next step is Oxycodone and that step scares me to death....what is after that???

[Jack Hammer]

Speaking as an “oldster,” I would have to say that, after age fifty-five or so, if you wake up without something, somewhere, hurting, you’re probably dead.

[cbkaty]

The persecution of MDs who prescrib pain killers has gotten so bad that many are afraid to give adequate doses even to terminal cancer patients.

Sadly this is the result of empathetic physicians and unethical patients as well as an overzealous DEA.

The physician is always the scapegoat....even when the prosecution and the patient are complete idiots....

[Crazieman]

I suffer from frequent migraines :(

[Moonman62]

The persecution of MDs who prescrib pain killers has gotten so bad that many are afraid to give adequate doses even to terminal cancer patients.

Yet prescriptions have almost doubled in eight years according to the article.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

The increased use of pain killers is not necessarily good, or bad. It depends. It would also be good to see doctors encourage their patients to try some natural remedies first. I get good pain relief with Ester C. I know it sounds funny but google “pain, Vitamin C”. We’re healthier for it, too.

[CholeraJoe]

War on Doctors ping.

[Cagey]

The picture on your homepage is breaktaking!

Yes, it's a live cam in Monmouth County, NJ. There's a stalled front here right now and seas are running fairly high.

I had to smile at your use of the word "breathtaking" as it was just used in a recent re-run of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes:

BEN: Elaine, you have children?

ELAINE: Me? Oh no, but I'd love to have a baby, I mean, I can't wait to have a baby. I'm just dyin' to have a baby

BEN: A beautiful woman like you should. You're quite breathtaking.

ELAINE: Breathtaking? I'm breathtaking?

[from occupied ga]

Yet prescriptions have almost doubled in eight years according to the article.

according to the artice also:

People with cancer are surviving longer, elderly people are living longer,"

Increasing usage just means that there was pent up demand.

[TomServo]

Loratab never did much for me. I graduated right to Oxy.

Oxy is great stuff. Your back may still hurt, but you won't care. ;-)

Initially, my pain was so bad, I couldn't walk. At all.

Staph infection wrapped around the base of my spine.

[6ppc]

A very disjointed article. I can't figure out if it's about growth in sales of pain killers, rampant over prescription of pain killers, unfair prosecution of doctors who prescribe pain killers, or the growing need for pain killers.

I have a good friend who in 1990 fell and broke his spine in several places. I've seen the xrays and his spine is held together with plates and screws. The only thing that keeps him going is pain killers. I hate to think how he would manage if they were suddenly not available.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Speaking as an “oldster,” I would have to say that, after age fifty-five or so, if you wake up without something, somewhere, hurting, you’re probably dead."

I'm fifty-nine (sixty in two weeks), and was starting to have arthritic pain episodes in one hip joint. MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) capsules did the trick for me. (MSM is the ingestible form of DMSO).