Prescription Pain Abusers Flood ERs

[AROCES]

Emergency room visits tied to the abuse of prescription painkillers have jumped 111 percent over a five-year period, an alarming increase that threatens the American public health system, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday.

Emergency department visits involving the nonmedical use of pain drugs such as oxycodone rose to 305,885 in 2008, from 144,644 in 2004, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We urgently need to take action," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement, noting that trips to the emergency department for nonmedical use of prescription pain drugs are now as common as those for use of illicit drugs.

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/health_stories/prescription_pain_abusers/2010/06/18/323292.htmlbb

[Lilly]

I'm not at all surprized.

When my daughter had heart surgery they sent her home with medication that made her feel so loopy and out of it that she refused to take it. The Dr. then wrote her a script for something far more mild. I think some of these highly addictive drugs are just far too easy to obtain.

[H.H. Holmes]

Lilly,

I agree with you to a point. Much of this problem has almost nothing to do with the doctor's themselves, but patients who are prescribed a large amount of the drug then sell it. There are many people who have chronic pain or were badly injured that sell their pills. I know many people who, when prescribed pain medication, will only take the bare minimum and then sell the rest. I suppose why not? The money you can make off of a bottle of prescription painkillers is considerable.

Although, when you need painkiller, then you need painkillers. My mother was ill with meningitis and her brain was literally swelling up against the inside of her cranium. She couldn't walk, talk, eat, or stand up without being in immense pain; we had to take care of her for a month, and eventually had to get holes drilled into her head to relieve the pressure. And can you believe that at first, when my mother was in the hospital, they would only give her a tylenol 3, which is a relatively mild opiate. She was throwing up constantly from the sheer pain and the swelling, so she asked for something stronger. The doctor actually complained about people calling him about pain medication. I mean come on, you know when someone is in real, true pain.

Rant over.

[MissMelsWell]

Lilly,

I agree with you to a point. Much of this problem has almost nothing to do with the doctor's themselves, but patients who are prescribed a large amount of the drug then sell it. There are many people who have chronic pain or were badly injured that sell their pills. I know many people who, when prescribed pain medication, will only take the bare minimum and then sell the rest. I suppose why not? The money you can make off of a bottle of prescription painkillers is considerable.

As a former pharmacy technician... I can assure you that is IS the doctors who are the problem. Working in a pharmacy, we knew exactly who the "drug dealing" doctors were in our community and the druggies knew who they were too. Most frequently, the druggies would feign back pain or head pain (something that no tests can prove) and certain doctors would load them up with scripts. ER's do it all the time too because it's their goal to get the person in and out as quickly as humanly possible.

It was SO common to see the same addicts in our pharmacy week after week, and they were going from doctor to doctor scoring what they could. They knew which docs would write the scripts and which ones wouldn't. Then, when the docs caught on (or we called the docs on their habits) the druggies would go back to their office and often STEAL their Rx pads and start writing their own scripts. Then they'd bounce from pharmacy to pharmacy as well. I can't tell you how many of these jokers I caught in the year I worked in that job. I must have filled out dozens of police reports.... and that was more than 20 years ago. It's no different now.

When it comes right down to it... it IS the doctors... people in real chronic pain who have a legitimate use, do NOT part with their pain medications. We could tell that by their refill habits.

Then there were the doctors support staff people (nurses, receptionists etc...) oh they were fun and semi-difficult to catch... They were usually the ones that would call in scripts. They'd get their friends to make appointments, then call in 2 times more medication than the doc actually prescribed, then when the person showed up with the paper script, with half the amount on it, (or say an 11, turned into a 77) we'd call the office and the receptionist would say "yes, Doctor Smith wrote 77" we could NEVER get doctor Smith on the phone though. A lot of the really tough problems we had almost always involved the office staff. They were the ones moving massive quantities... it was easy for them.

It's not the patients, because they aren't really patients, it's lazy doctors and devious office staff.

Edited June 20, 2010 by MissMelsWell

[asc.rudeboy]

i get the opposite reaction..they see me big scary guy with tattoos and piercings with shaved head,and the last 3 times i went to the dr.s (er 2,the dentist 1) i have yet to get anything stronger then a Tylenol 3,because they think im looking for scripts....

[Halfwolf]

I am at work in a Hosp. right now and we just got a patient back that spends more time here than at home. They hook him up to a pain pump. Now he does have sickle cell which can be very painful, but now he comes in even when he isn't in crisis. He is just addicted and they keep admitting him. As long as Medicare and Medicaid keep paying for this kind of abuse they will keep handing out the stuff.

[AROCES]

I am at work in a Hosp. right now and we just got a patient back that spends more time here than at home. They hook him up to a pain pump. Now he does have sickle cell which can be very painful, but now he comes in even when he isn't in crisis. He is just addicted and they keep admitting him. As long as Medicare and Medicaid keep paying for this kind of abuse they will keep handing out the stuff.

Free this and free that ruins a society.

Communism is the biggest experimentation and failure ever, socialism is a revised attempt.

[MissMelsWell]

I am at work in a Hosp. right now and we just got a patient back that spends more time here than at home. They hook him up to a pain pump. Now he does have sickle cell which can be very painful, but now he comes in even when he isn't in crisis. He is just addicted and they keep admitting him. As long as Medicare and Medicaid keep paying for this kind of abuse they will keep handing out the stuff.

Or maybe it's because insurance, medicare and medicaid won't pay for pain management programs like oh, accupuncture, herbal remedies which often work etc... and goodness knows, the hospitals wouldn't want them to because that's less dollars they can charge back to insurance, medicare and medicaid! Evil, vicious cycle.

Docs don't have the option to say "You're taking too much of this, we want to send you to a pain management specialist to help you reduce your pain naturally and reduce the amount of drugs you're taking" No, they don't do that because health insurance/benefits of any flavor won't pay for it. So, they do the only thing they can do... they keep pumpin patients like your sickle cell patient up with morphine. Yea! Another drug addict! He's coming in because he's coming OFF the morphine which is painful in and of itself and it requires special treatment to get off of and STAY off of! Treatment no one wants to pay for!

Edited June 20, 2010 by MissMelsWell

[H.H. Holmes]

MisMelsWell,

Thank you, your post was very informative and I appreciate hearing the viewpoint of someone from the side of the pharmacy.

I realize that there are doctors out there who really don't think twice about prescribing addictive painkillers to people who may not need them. I was just going off of the experiences and the hearsay that I hear from being in NA meetings (I go with my father who is a recovering addict). I have seen what opiate addiction can do to a person and it is something you can't just "stop" or go "cold turkey" on. I agree with your most recent post, as a society, we don't do nearly enough to break the cycles of addiction that happen when someone does get addicted to these meds. We have a far way to go in understanding and treating drug addiction with the seriousness that is required, not just penalizing people, but treating them, also.