Comments on: Painkiller overdose deaths top those from heroin and cocaine

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:24:59 +0000

Agreed. In hospice palliative care, it’s not uncommon to see patients admitted into inpatient units who until that moment have been somehow coping with horrific intractable pain due to the profound ignorance of their physicians (often for weeks, months and even years). Appalling and inexcusable.

LikeLike

By: V. Miller

V. Miller — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:06:15 +0000

Narcotic medications are needed for some people in severe chronic pain that need to be able to function. There are many of us that do not abuse them and are responsible pain management patients.

LikeLike

By: Dannie Addison

Dannie Addison — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:25:16 +0000

It is fact that, Inappropriately used prescription pain medications kill 15,000 people in the United States each year. This is the report release by CDC in this month. Now a days in major high standard of living area people also addicted to heroin and cocaine. But normal prescribe drugs are not cause to death unless approved by FDA.

LikeLike

By: Dr Joe Kosterich

Dr Joe Kosterich — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:45:56 +0000

Yes

LikeLike

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:37:05 +0000

Hi Dr. Joe – very interesting Fortune article, thanks for that. I was fascinated by the corporate history of Purdue Pharma. Short-term post op pain AND end-of-life pain – two appropriate uses of opioids. The rest is frightening.
Cheers,
C.

LikeLike

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:29:26 +0000

Hi Cave and thanks for your comment – much of the material here comes from the ProPublica investigation which I’ve already linked to in the article. Their report contains many direct source links.
cheers,
C.

LikeLike

By: Dr Joe Kosterich

Dr Joe Kosterich — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:43:25 +0000

This is a major problem in other countries too. Fortune magazine did an excellent report on the marketing background including how Purdue was fined over $600 million for misleading advertising.

Both doctors and patients have been misled. Doctors believed that they had a tool to “ease suffering” and patients were told that they had a safe pain reliever.
As you rightly point out, there are other ways of dealing with pain. Narcotics should be reserved for short term post operative pain as was the case till the late 1990’s.

LikeLike

By: cave76

cave76 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:25:32 +0000

Great reporting on a very misunderstood problem. Thank you.

I feel as if I were being described in this paragraph—-
“It’s been said that the ideal low-risk patient for opioids is a woman in her 70s with no history of addiction issues who is suffering from severe arthritis of the hip, but who can walk and garden with decreased pain because she is taking this painkiller.”

Not arthritis but other problems. It took a lot of pain for me to be brave enough to take Vicodin so I would have some few hours a day of being able to do a few necessary chores, shopping or ‘fun’ things without having my shoulders up around my ears. (grin)

Even so, I only take 2 per day (masochist that I am) when I wish for four.

But back on topic—- Can you provide some of the URLs of the articles that you’ve used as source for your post? Or are they subscriber-only. I tried to find the source of a couple and google was too prolific and not specific enough.

The paragraph in your post:

“Researchers have also found that over half of opioid overdose deaths occur in people who have never actually been prescribed the drugs, and that another 20% occur in those who have received prescriptions from five or more physicians (the known practice called “doctor shopping”).”

THANK YOU—- for seeking that out. I’ve always felt that the ‘statistics’ were being skewed! Just as ‘long term antibiotic use’ is being denied for people who need it to keep up some quality of life and yet——– think of all the happy dairy cows that ingest antibiotics by the ton! The Ag people have a very proficient lobbyist, nein?

LikeLike