I remember a story long ago where this woman was in pain and dying from cancer. Her husband told hospital staff not to give her pain meds because he didn’t want her dying as an addict.
In ww2 there was a school of thought that wounded soldiers shouldn’t get morphine because they might become addicted. They lost.
9 years ago I was hospitalized for 9 days with intractable unbearable pain from 7 broken ribs and a bruised lung. Had an epidural morphine pump .implanted in my spine. I could control the pump but it had a limiter so I wouldn’t get too much. Didn’t do that much for pain relief but did make me into a bigger prick than I normally am..or so I was told. Didn’t become an addict.
I am a pharmacist and know full well the problems with addiction. My father broke his back in a helicopter crash, he was the pilot. He was in great pain and was totally physically addicted to codeine that was used for pain control. Once the pain was no longer a problem he reduced and then quit the use of pain killers. He did not want to use codeine and when he no longer needed it quit using it.
Addiction is physiological, the need to continue this addiction is psychological.
When I was a liver doaner to my beloved brother I was on very high dose morphine for pain control. They split you open like a filleted fish. Post op pain is really bad. I needed the morphine for pain. I hated the way it made me feel mentally. As soon as the pain was under control I got off the morphine even though I still had some pain.
Addiction is physiologic but long term addiction is psychological.
We’re all addicts to something! Oxygen is #1. If an old person can’t life a decent life without pain killers, leave them to live their life.
Legitimate pain pain patients will go untreated or under treated until a politician, powerful bureacrat or family member suffers from chronic pain not amenable to specific treatment.
Sick. I hate politicians and bureaucrats. They are scumbags and MFers.