Americans broadly support new Obama administration guidelines urging physicians to prescribe fewer powerful painkillers, according to the latest STAT-Harvard poll. They blame doctors for the nation’s epidemic of opioid addiction about as much as they hold individuals responsible for abusing the drugs.
But most people are also concerned that the prescribing guidelines, issued Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, could create hurdles for people who legitimately need strong pain medicine, such as Percocet, OxyContin, or Vicodin.
Seven in 10 Americans support two key elements of the guidelines: advising doctors to give patients no more than a three-day supply of opioid painkillers to treat most cases of acute pain, and trying other treatment options first before prescribing opioids for chronic pain. There was no significant difference between Democrats and Republicans.
As of June I have been opiod free for a year. No thanks to Dr’s, did it on my own. Now I had a super hard time getting off the oxy. Do I blame the doctors? YES I DO!!! Let me tell you why..
First, I saved an employee from falling off the roof and I got injured. For 2.5 years I have been in pain. I went to countless Doctors. All of them said I was fine, but not a one of them actually touched me. That’s all they had to do. My rib is broken and pokes out of my stomach, but I’m fine… I have a massive bulge in my abdomen, yet I was fine.. So fine they pumped me full of opiods..
Fast forward 2.5 years later and I have surgery scheduled later this month. Finally a Doctor touched me. So yes I do blame the doctors NOT doing their jobs. I saved someones life and was IGNORED, put on pain pills, given permanently handicapped status, yet I was fine..
So, why are these Docs not treating patients?
father was diagnosed with parkinsons disease. a few months later walked into hospital, and suffered a stroke while undergoing tests, never walked again. doctor prescribed strong narcotic iv treatment, that required him to be hospitalized to administer. 4 years later, he died after costing our family $945,000 in out of pocket expenses. The iv treatment cost $375,000 to administer, and left our family bankrupt. later when my mother needed health care she had none, because she had pooled insurance with father, and lost her hospitalization. Her poor son got the blame for this, and wound up in jail on ficticious charges based soley circumstantial evidence. this my friends is a medical outrage, and there should be some forum for it.
sincerely,
wbcathey
This issue is not some elementary school question in which you give a simple answer and then find out who is at fault. Some pharmaceutical companies do hold some blame. Are you willing to pull them from your 401k investments? Some physicians hold some culpability too. Before you cast the first stone and eliminate the rogue providers who make up less than 1% of docs who sold scripts like drug kingpins are you ready then to take responsibility for the patients’ end in the opioid addiction phenomenon? That’s right. A huge number of people in this country literally curse at and threaten lawsuits against emergency department providers when they deem their pain is uncontrolled. Has anyone even asked this ballooning number of teenagers and college students who now are addicted why when so many have so much in this country why it’s not their fault they are “bored” and trying various drugs? There is a problem when I take care of patients in their teens and twenties who their view their occasional use of drugs as recreational. Then they get in over their heads and somehow it’s not their parents’ or their fault? Their experimentation leads to the addiction. This is not something you are born to die from without the active participant of the user.
I am all for appropriate regulations, state databases, MD education and cracking down on miscommunication and deceit from culpable drug manufacturers. But the time has come a long time ago for Americans to come out of the fear of self reproach. Thousands of people became addicted because they did not heed warnings by parents or society and brought the nightmare on themselves. I have older patients who tell me their drug use is simply for occasional “fun” and these well to do employed individuals look at me with scorn as I explain the minefield they are running. Those individuals are guilty of the consequences they experience. And no, no one wants their patient to see the end of this behavior but for many this is a ride they chose to get on of their own free will. And please do not spout off about those who inadvertently became addicted. This is not about them and we all know it. There are thousands who played Russian roulette and are losing but it’s their own fault. We should help them but you cannot fix this without understanding the problem and we need to stop the idea that “trying experiences” and excessive alcohol use or drugs and needing to find excitement in our lives is a right and not without consequences.
It is not fair to those with real chronic pain who require regular opioids to be rolled into the regulatory nightmare and stigmatization that now evidently is attached to anyone using opioids.
Here’s the bottom line. Why don’t we stop looking for the only transiently fulfilling answer to this mess? Why don’t we pause and say we don’t just want to find the easy target of our anger while ignoring the complexity of this problem? Americans’ issue with opioids is due to numerous factors and one of these, the potential real culpability of the user themselves, needs to be addressed in a dispassionate way so real solutions can be found. The world can be awash in narcan and if the other reasons people develop any addiction are not dealt with we will still be buying coffins especially since so many people are doing heroin and other classes or drugs. If we do not work on this in a more intelligent fashion, you can sue and blame and cry and hold town hall meetings and pay for more detox but you will not stem the tide of this tsunami.
The cdc and the government needs to stay out of our doctors office. They are tying the drs hands who try to help us with this disease. . Yes chronic pain is a DISEASE. . It is am epidemic and we are not getting the care and medications we need to live a half way normal life. Where are our rights as patients to get the care, medication and humanity we need to live?
They have to place a blame and they’re starting in our drs office, because we are an easy target. Let them go after the doctors, because they can..
We are alive but we definitely are not living any type of life due to pain.
You ever had pain, ever had a shoe wearing a blister on your heal, it’s painful, it’s distracting, makes you limp when you walk. Sure you can put a band-aide on it and it eventually goes away, and you go on with your life. Now what if that shoe/blister effect was inside your body, same pain, same distractions, and it hurt when you move. Sure you go see your doctor. They may give you medications, and tells you we can try this or that treatment. Sure the pain medications, take the pain down, so you can function to some degree, but the treatments, are not fixing the shoe/blister problem, so you move on to the next treatment, and this is now a part of your life now, constant pain, pain medications, and treatments. So after a few years, there are no more treatment, no more options, and the only thing left to help with the pain, is the pain medications. You know the pain medications, are not the best thing for you, because of the possible side effects, you know your are not addicted, just dependant. And you know the pain will come back if you stop taking them. But you still want to be able to have some ability to function, tend to daily things, cleaning house, family, friends, a job. So really what would you choose?
To you the minority. Just wait till you have an accident or have arthritis. You are self righteous hypocrites. Doctors were just doing what they are supposed to do, treat pain so people in pain can live a liveable life. I bet you fascists are happy with these new cdc laws. You’d rather have pain patients commit suicide for the ultimate pain relief. You have no sympathy for your fellow human beings.
I totally agree with the writer before me; thoughtless commentators need remember the last time they felt excruciating pain, [tooth-ache, migraine, earache]. And consider what that relentless pain would be like 24/7, w/o any relief or compassion. The CDC, [center for “disease control”] shouldn’t be in charge of healthcare. The CDC can’t even tell the truth about the pandemic of lyme and associated diseases that are now world spread, no-less the failed and deadly vaccines that have damaged adults and killed children. Many officials at the CDC are resigning due to suppression of evidence and political interests. When it comes to human pain and suffering, and the lack of knowledge and access to intelligent screening insurance measures, torture is never an option. It’s cruel and ignorant to judge the pain of another.
Wow sorry you feel this way but you have either a prescription of these drugs and are scared they are coming to take it or you as you have accused us who desire some regulation here, do not care for your fellow man.