Posted on 12/27/2016 7:44:49 AM PST by Mariner
OxyContin is a dying business in America.
With the nation in the grip of an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, the U.S. medical establishment is turning away from painkillers. Top health officials are discouraging primary-care doctors from prescribing them for chronic pain, saying there is no proof that they work long-term and substantial evidence that they put patients at risk.
Prescriptions for OxyContin have fallen nearly 40 percent since 2010, meaning billions of dollars in lost revenue for its Connecticut manufacturer, Purdue Pharma.
So the company's owners, the Sackler family, adopted a new strategy: Put the painkiller that set off the U.S. opioid crisis into medicine cabinets around the world.
A network of international companies owned by the family is moving rapidly into Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other regions, and pushing for broad use of painkillers in places ill-prepared to deal with opioid abuse and addiction.
In the global drive, the companies, known as Mundipharma, are using some of the controversial marketing practices that made OxyContin a pharmaceutical blockbuster in the U.S.
In Brazil, China and elsewhere, the companies are running training seminars at which doctors are urged to overcome "opiophobia" and prescribe painkillers. They are sponsoring public campaigns that encourage people to seek medical treatment for chronic pain. They are even offering patient discounts to make prescription opioids more affordable.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy said he would advise his peers abroad "to be very careful" with opioid medications and to learn from American "missteps."
"I would urge them to be very cautious about the marketing of these medications," he said in an interview. "Now, in retrospect, we realize that for many the benefits did not outweigh the risks."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I take issue with their endless contention that they are not addictive. Which is still the official position of the company and far too many doctors. They classify it as "physical dependence" which can be "managed" when therapy ends. The classic "taper" method to overcome addiction.
Use these drugs as needed for ACUTE pain only. Never accept a prescription for chronic pain...they will eventually become ineffective and leave you a junkie.
Ask Rush Limbaugh if they’re addictive. But speak up when you ask him.
It almost destroyed Rush Limbaugh.
For acute pain (not chronic), double up a few days on ibuprofen or naproxen and “tough it out”. That’s my best (non-professional) advice.
I remember the big push to use opioids liberally back in the early 2000’s.
I knew from the start it wouldn’t end well, no matter what nurse “educators” told us.
But I had no idea it would become as nightmarish as it has.
I’ve seen a lot of lives ruined by the “pain is the fifth vital sign” campaign.
I had cancer about 5 years ago. I was loaded up with narcs for about 3 weeks. When I got home, I tossed my narcs. It took about 6 months to completely recover from the withdrawal symptoms.
It all started with a large monetary award given for inadequately treated pain. Hospitals in general and a large number of docs freaked out and started handing out drugs to avoid getting sued.
The resultant damage has been extensive.
I came out of leg surgery and when I awoke I stated to the nurse that I was in very bad pain.
She argued with me that I had already had my morphine.
I adamantly disagreed with her. Repeatedly.
It took five minutes before she broke down and told me she had only given me one-half my dose.
It was administered and all was well.
After a few days I was off the morphine and on Tylenol 3.
Opioids WORK.
Of course, those of us with at least two functioning IQ points know better.
I fully support liberal administration of these drugs for ACUTE pain.
I’ve had a knee reconstruction and would have shot myself without them.
It’s when they prescribe them for chronic back pain, 150 pills per month, that the problems arise.
Use these drugs as needed for ACUTE pain only. Never accept a prescription for chronic pain...they will eventually become ineffective and leave you a junkie.
Good advice, maybe a max of 5 days and no refills.
In the past few years I had knee surgery and severe foot surgery by two different ortho pods. I and my RN wife told both of them that I do not tolerate these drugs. I did great with Toradol a heavy duty non steroidal.
Both wrote Rx’s for a week of Toradol and 120 of these drugs.
I never took a single pill of these drugs. The Toradol worked great, and I was able to start using an otc non steroidal for any pain I had about a week.
The filled Rx’s of these drugs went into my gun safe until they had the local drop off of drugs no longer needed. Then, I made sure that both a cop and a pharmacist at the drop off stations knew want I was dropping off to avoid temptation on their part.
This reminds me of the adage “The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.” by Austrian former communist Willi Schlamm.
There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of profit. However it does require moral self regulation. Just because actions are legal does not mean that they are moral and/or ethical. Products that can cause addiction and/or death require honest understanding of the moral limits in how they are marketed and sold. The marketing strategy of Oxy, with a short term focus on increasing sales and the downplaying of its addictive properties creates long term problems for the company and the industry.
It is well established that the broad use of these drugs is problematic. Purdue Pharma’s marketing is morally questionable given the US experience. They should know better and understand that this cash cow should not be marketed broadly. It is an invaluable aid for acute pain, but its use should be strictly monitored.
Purdue is not willing to see that, or worse, has decided to ignore the fall out from US experience with their product.
When they and the rest of “Big Pharma” next complains about heavy handed export regulation, they need to look in the mirror at the cause.
I did not become addicted, but I can appreciate how that happens. When I stopped taking it, I had a couple restless nights getting to sleep without my Percocet "blanket" wrapped around me.
My flight surgeon was providing me with a model of care not provided to the average citizen, service member, or even average fighter pilot. His diligence got me off the pain meds as soon as I was ready and made my recovery easier.
The lack of individual attention is one of the larger contributing factors in the abuse of pain killers. Maybe a management protocol for patients on pain killers is called for. Every abuser created makes it tougher for the people that really need those medicines.
And for those who got addicted due to chronic pain prescriptions, you’re still a junkie.
Own it and get free.
i have degenerative bone disease and a ruptured disk in my lower back - i wake up in pain and go to bed in pain. the va had me on opioid pain meds for years then abruptly took me off them.
i came off them easily but don't believe anybody who tries to tell you that these drugs are ineffective.
just my .02 worth
I personally avoid pain killers as much as possible, in addition to psychotropics.
But how do you suggest help manange a 90 year old with chronic, severe pain from degenerative bone disease?
Her doc gives Vicodin. Do you object?
some on here are very wrong when they say this is just a case of personal responsibility. You are not buying an illegal drug. You are taking something for pain that has some profoundly addicting effects on some people. I was lucky. I took 240 milligrams a day of Oxycontin and came off it without a problem. It didn’t help me so I stopped. I didn’t taper. That’s unusual. So many people have gone to heroin because I was offered $1,200 for my bottle of Oxycontin and of course I said no. I don’t deal in death.
heroin is much cheaper.
Apparently this Pharmacy does deal in death and they’re going to spread it to the world.
by the way it was originally promised by these folks that it would only be used for cancer. But I guess enough congressmen or FDA people got paid off to make it available to almost anybody.
if anyone is interested, many scientists are beginning to say that dopamine has more of effect on depression than serotonin. Which means maybe 35 years of phenomenal profits were based on very little evidence. The statistics say 1 out of 5 people are helped and only if those people are in a severe depression. 95% of severe depression cases go away within 5 years without pills.
I took them after my father died when I was young so I have some experience with them. Only one drug had any effect and that was Part dopamine reuptake inhibitor. I wasn’t on them for very long but that one did help for about three months before I didn’t need it.
After a Bad Motorcycle Accident (Major Road rash requiring 2 sq feet of skin grafting) in 1979, I was in such bad shape, they needed to let my body start to heal naturally before they could do Surgery.
There are pics on this site somewhere, I posted them
During that 80 day period I was given a Never Ending Prescription of Percodan. By the end when I went in for the Surgery, I was Completely Addicted to Opiates, I was taking at least 3 every HOUR! and had to through Withdrawls in the Hospital, it took 2 weeks. It Really Sucked too.
However, if I did not take the OPIATES every Hour or two as needed for the excruciating pain, I IMMEDIATELY WENT INTO SHOCK and Hit the Ground.
YES they are a Necessary Evil and should still be used for Pain, but I think the Long Term Chronic Pain is a different Story.
At 90 the addiction is not likely to do her much harm.
I know drug addiction is harmful to the US. The sudden push to “fight” the “opioid epidemic” is very concerning, especially as Obama releases “non-violent” drug dealers from prison!
They want to punish sick white people is the only thing that makes sense.
I just question the motives of politicians who never seem to care for Americans.
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