As physicians increasingly rely on treatment guidelines issued by medical societies and government agencies, researchers raise concerns that drug makers may subtly influence the proceedings through various financial relationships and they recommend stronger actions for disclosing potential conflicts of interest.
The industry influence can take different forms, however, according to the research, which was published in a pair of papers on Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
For guidelines devised for treating high cholesterol and hepatitis C, one paper found that financial conflicts disclosed by some panel members working on behalf of different medical societies were incomplete. In the other instance, organizations with industry support vociferously objected to new guidelines for prescribing opioid painkillers in what appeared to be a bid to derail the effort.
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I am a 56 yo female and have suffered the last 20+ years with Fibrmyagia. I’ve also had 3 neck surgeries and reconstructive foot surgery due to an accident.
I too am scared I may one day be left to suffer as a result of the opiode restrictions. I can’t imagine living in excruciating pain. I have been in pain management for about 18 years, and they keep lowering my dosage. I was told at my last appt. That they would have to switch me to long acting morphine, because the new regulations are restricting the amount of short acting opcodes such as Norco. My question is, how is this change in my medication to a drug that doesnt control my pain, going to help in the ” National Opiode Crisis”? Why don’t we investigate how many deaths are linked to alcohol? The reason there is an increase in heroine overdoses, is because these people can’t get a legitimate RX for pain meds. On the street a 10 mg Norco is about $8 – $10 a pill. Heroine is about $ 5. Also much stronger. Last word I have to say is this, if I want to drink my self to death or drive drunk and kill someone else, for no other reason than to catch a buzz and it’s viewed as acceptable socialy as well as legally, then why can’t I take a pill for pain that might cause me to be a little euphoric as a side effect? I believe these are choices as Free Americans should be able to make without the government. If I overdose, or hit a tree while driving drunk, that’s one less off the insurance.