Neurologists Don’t Think Painkillers Should Be So Common

Over the course of the past few years, we have seen an explosion in the rate at which doctors in the United States are prescribing prescription painkillers. Medications including hydrocodone (known commonly by the brand name Vicodin) and oxycodone (OxyContin and Percocet), are now among the most commonly used pharmaceutical drugs in America, and they are being used by far more people now than they were in the past. Until recently, opioid painkillers were reserved almost exclusively for cases in which the enormous risk of abuse and addiction was outweighed by the severity of the patient’s condition and the likelihood that the patient would not live long enough for addiction to be an issue.

Cancer patients and those suffering from terminal illnesses were the usual recipients of these drugs. Hydrocodone and oxycodone are both derived from codeine, which itself is a derivative of opium, meaning that these medications are closely related to morphine and its derivative heroin. In the past, physicians wouldn’t think of prescribing such powerful and potentially addictive drugs in any but the most extreme situations, where the benefits of providing relief to the patient were counterbalanced by the prognosis of the condition and the chances that the patient wouldn’t live long enough to become an addict. Now, everything has changed.

Are Prescriptions More Common

More recently, it has become common for doctors in various specialties to be willing to write a prescription for painkillers when a patient comes in complaining of back pain, headaches, fibromyalgia or other common conditions. For the millions of Americans who suffer from some form of chronic pain, the door has opened to immediate and powerful relief, but it comes at a serious price. Using opioid painkillers can make a night and day difference in the life of a patient, offering an escape from the constant and perhaps debilitating pain that he or she may have been living with for years, but in all too many cases, the patient gets hooked.

Opioid users have a tendency to build a tolerance to their medication, meaning that it becomes necessary to take increasing amounts of the drugs in order to achieve the same effects. Sometimes, a patient may start taking more pills just to get more of the high or might even start crushing the pills to snort them. In either case, the result is an addiction, and more than 15,000 Americans now die every year from overdosing on their pain pills. Prescription drug overdose now kills more people in this country than car accidents.

Are Things Turning Around Regarding Painkiller Abuse?

Now, things are finally turning around, and there is an increasing wave of public outcry against the painkiller abuse epidemic. Much of the ire is being directed at the physicians who have become all too willing to prescribe these dangerous medications, though we should not overlook the drug manufacturers, several of which are now being prosecuted by the District Attorneys of Orange and Santa Clara Counties in California for deceptive marketing of their drugs. Most recently, the American Academy of Neurologists released a position statement in which they come out against the current practices for prescribing opioid pain medications. In the paper, they argue that patients who are given these drugs are not so likely to experience improvements in their ability to go about their everyday lives, as they are to become addicted, experience serious side effects or overdose.

Furthermore, they called upon prescribing physicians to do a better job of tracking their patient’s use of the medications, with the goal of catching dependence before it gets out of control and making sure that the drugs are actually working to improve the patient’s ability to function, rather than just getting the patient high on narcotics. It is to be hoped that physicians in the field will heed the warning of the neurologist group, since they are the ones who have the most power over controlling the flow of painkillers into our society, and can save lives by refusing to give such dangerous drugs to patients who are likely to suffer rather than benefit from them.

Source:

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-for-chronic-pain-opioids-20141001-story.html