Thursday, August 27, 2015
Political Mayhem Thursday: How to Control Opioids?
On Tuesday of this week, I was honored to moderate a panel of prominent doctors at this conference on opioid abuse. There were a lot of famous politicians as speakers-- Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Al Franken, Mary Bono, Gov. Dayton, etc.-- but I was most fascinated by what the real-world doctors and patients had to say. Uniformly, they described a broken system that has created disasters for too many patients who become addicts.
There is one insight that has really stuck with me. One of the doctors on my panel, Robert Levy, is a teacher at the University of Minnesota medical school and a family practice specialist. When I asked him what the dynamic behind over-prescription was, part of his answer was this: It is easy to say yes (to a patient who wants opioids) and hard to say no. If a doctor isn't going to give the patient oxycontin or percocet, that will be a long discussion… but if they say yes, it will be a short one. In an environment where doctors are evaluated based on how many patients they see, that dynamic is very powerful.
What should we be doing to control opioids? Or should we even try?
Comments:
<< Home
Yes we should try!Doctor prescribed opioids are meant solely for palliative care. Palliative being the operative word, which implies a temporary fix until the underlying cause of pain is resolved. I think the only way to regulate doctor assisted drug addiction is to restrict the number of refills they can prescribe for the same patient. And I also think doctors who choose to repeatedly numb pain instead of finding ways to cure it, should be subject to losing their license until they learn how to dispense proper health care.
Unfortunately, the more we restrict the prescribing of opioids, the more difficult it is to relieve pain for those who truly need them, either for short term recovery from surgery or injury or long term for those in chronic pain. So many Drs. are terrified of being prosecuted for overprescribing that they won't effectively treat severe pain. With the current doctrine of minimal hospital stays for even major surgery, there is often the need for several weeks of out-of-hospital pain relief.
It can take 6-8 weeks or more to rehab from major orthopedic procedures, and sometimes longer. I speak from personal experience! I am fortunate - I have more than once taken Demerol, Oxy, or Vicoden for 2 months or more and stopped with no problems. I know that addiction is a real problem for many -
I would be interested to know what the Drs. had to say about this problem.
Lee
Post a Comment
It can take 6-8 weeks or more to rehab from major orthopedic procedures, and sometimes longer. I speak from personal experience! I am fortunate - I have more than once taken Demerol, Oxy, or Vicoden for 2 months or more and stopped with no problems. I know that addiction is a real problem for many -
I would be interested to know what the Drs. had to say about this problem.
Lee
# posted by 
: 4:42 PM
: 4:42 PM << Home
