[cpdiii]

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.

[SkyDancer]

The. Woman. Was. Dying. Of. Cancer. Her. Husband. Had. Staff. Not. Give. Her. Morphine. Because. He. Didn’t. Want. Her. To Die. As. An. Addict. Dying. Of. Cancer. On. Her. Death. Bed.

[amihow]

You are correct. Most people dump opiods gradually as pain recedes. If pain is intractable patients should have as much for as long as they need it.

I have a 9w year old friend with unfixable, intractable bone pain. She gets as much Vicodin as she needs. Whoever objects is sadistic, ignorant or both.z

[Alas Babylon!]

Agree 100%. I spent a week on a pneumatic chest tube draining a plural effusion that completely collapsed my lung. The pain was bad, and the morphine was ALMOST as bad. I didn’t like the way it made me mentally—swoony, dizzy, dulled.

After 3 days, I could take the pain enough to stop the morphine. Spent the last 4 days on Tylenol, in the hospital, and then the next couple of months on ibuprofen at home.