Washington P:"Doctors prescribed me pain meds but couldn't help me get off them"

[[La...]]

I've written about this topic before, and would like to share another relevant article. This Washington Post article has a title in which two words could be switched for one, and it would have many parallels to the benzodiazepine issue that plagues us all. How about "Doctors prescribed me benzodiazepines but couldn't help me get off them"?

 

This author had a terrible accident and required some pain medication. But when it came time to get off those potent medications, no one stepped up to the plate. He went through a terrible withdrawal without guidance or support.

 

I see so many parallels between the opioid epidemic and the benzodiazepine epidemic.

 

Here's are some key excerpts that illuminate these parallels:

 

"Doctors are the gatekeepers of medication for a reason: They are supposed to protect their patients from the harm that could come from unregulated use of those medications. Physicians, public health officials and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell us that we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic because of the incredible addictive power of these drugs. Yet when people become addicted to painkillers after suffering a trauma, the best advice they might get from physicians when coping with withdrawal is to go back on the drugs. Can we really do no better than that?"

 

 

"Who’s responsible?"

 

"As an ethicist by profession, I believe physicians have a duty to prescribe only those medications that they can responsibly manage for the length of a patient’s need, including the treatment of foreseeable side effects. If a doctor prescribes a highly addictive medication for pain management, with serious and predictable withdrawal effects, then the physician has a duty to see that patient through the weaning process as safely and comfortably as possible — or to refer the patient to someone who will be able to offer assistance through that process."

 

 

"An apology"

 

"The plastic surgeon who had been managing my prescriptions eventually apologized and admitted that he simply had not known how to deal with opioid dependence. I hope that he committed to learning more after this experience.

 

But we need a broader conversation about physician responsibility for opioid-related harms as well as the systemic forces that make it easier or harder for physicians to recognize and discharge their responsibilities.

 

Opioid withdrawal isn’t minor. It’s not “just temporary” or “the price to be paid” for pain relief. It’s not morally innocuous. The moments that I was in withdrawal — all of the thousands of moments of genuine suffering — were the worst of my life. That kind of suffering matters, and its seriousness needs to be reflected in the way we deal with prescription opioids."

 

The full article is here:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/doctors-prescribed-me-pain-meds-but-offered-no-help-when-i-got-hooked/2017/01/20/d68a0f42-c171-11e6-9578-0054287507db_story.html?postshare=5601485112385678&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.3ee4934eb3fe

[[Te...]]

Lapis, I posted a Medscape article about this, but this article was much more inclusive, and I appreciate your posting it! I can only hope that, because he is a research scientist for Johns Hopkins, his article will have much more credibility and will be taken seriously by doctors. As we know only so well, the word "tapering" has doctors heading for the hills. And it cannot keep happening! If doctors prescribe medicine, they've got to take on the responsibility of being able to help with withdrawal instead of telling the patient to take more of the drug, tell the patient to taper fast or just stop taking the drug, tell the patient that they must be on the drug for the rest of their lives, or drop the patient as being non-compliant. This is a gaping hole in medical schools that needs to be fixed.

 

I'm glad that this man has the courage to write such an article because it's about time that someone did! It's unfortunate that we, as "regular people," aren't heard or paid attention to by doctors. It takes someone like a research scientist to finally get the point across. And I hope it does!

 

Thinking of something else, you can be sure that a doctor helping a patient withdraw from opiates or benzos will think twice about giving out the drug or giving too much. Doctors now have no qualms about upping a dose, but once they see withdrawal in action one too many  times, they'll stop doing that. Right now they blithely prescribe without taking any responsibility afterwards.

[[La...]]

Yes, important points, Terry. Thank you for the feedback. I think it's a great article, and I'm pleased that it's written by someone at such a well-respected US medical school.

 

I came across the article on the Twitter account of a prominent toxicologist/pharmacologist/U. of Toronto professor of medicine. His comment to his fellow doctors in the Tweet was that withdrawal is a marathon, not a sprint. I do hope his fellow doctors are reading and thinking about such things -- especially with the size of the opioid problem here in Canada.

 

Here's the Tweet:

 

 

[[Te...]]

Thanks, Lapis! I wish all doctors were like him!

[[La...]]

He does a fair amount of media appearances, so perhaps he'll be able to influence other Canadian doctors. I believe he's part of the federal team tasked with solving the opioid problem here. 

[[Te...]]

A good person to have! 

[[...]]

He does a fair amount of media appearances, so perhaps he'll be able to influence other Canadian doctors. I believe he's part of the federal team tasked with solving the opioid problem here.

 

Great to hear this, Lap.  Good guy, I like him a lot! 

[[La...]]

Yup. Me too! From his Twitter account, I figure that he was at CBC again over the weekend. (There was a picture of the building's distinctive atrium.) However, I'm not sure which program (TV or radio), but it was likely about the opioid issue.