@Magnetron, I’ve heard the same from non “addicts” but chronic pain sufferers on narcotics. They almost always mention generalized body aches separate and apart from their main pain issue after weaning off their pain meds.
Opiods are most definitely over prescribed. My son broke his arm on a Sunday when he was 15. The emergency room wrapped it and gave him a prescription for 50 Vicodin tablets and sent him home. He returned on Wednesday for surgery on the arm, stayed overnight and went home the next day with another prescription for 50 tablets which we did not fill since he had only taken 1 tablet from the first bottle and then switched to Advil.
On the other hand, my BIL has a chronic back condition. Has had four surgeries over the last ten years and is still in severe pain. He takes 4 vicodin tablets a day for years. It’s that or severe pain. But how much of it is real pain and how much is dependence on Vicodin?
Of course, one other effect of overprescription (e.g. two 50-tablet prescriptions of Vicodin for a short term situation where only 1 tablet was actually used, as described in #61) beyond adding to the potential of addiction and increasing supplies available for addicts is increased medical care costs due to the extra drugs dispensed and (at best) wasted.
I have had back and neck problems for literally decades. I’ve had injections, surgery, multiple rounds of physical therapy. I always marvel at how so many people are given narcotics “like candy.”
In all the decades of my back problems, I have never even ONCE been offered narcotic pain relievers for my pain, with the exception of after surgery. Take that back, once when I hurt my back really badly in Vegas, the hotel called a doctor for me. He gave me a shot of Toradol and ONE percocet to help me make it until the shot took effect.
That’s it. Of course, I’ve never asked for narcotics either, but still, you’d think in all these years someone would have been a little more liberal with the pain meds.
@3bm103, it doesn’t have to be an either/or. Your relative is likely dependent on the Vicodin (withdrawal upon cessation of the drug), but he may also have serious, legitimate pain. Back issues can be excruciating. Unfortunately, I know this from experience. It sounds like he might benefit from a consultation with an experienced pain management team.
I wonder if accupuncture might be a good way to help manage chronic pain?
Pharmaceutical companies and their buddies in the federal government have made it much more cost efficient for doctors to prescribe pills than to prescribe other pain management techniques. I highly recommend the book “Dreamland” to get the bigger picture.
He is, and has been, seeing a pain management specialist. But he has been on opiods for at least five years that I know of.
I think you should take the medicine you need when you need it. All this restriction due to a tiny percentage who overuse the drugs is stupid. Almost everyone will need pain medication at some time, and should have easy access to it when needed. Worry about those with issues when the issues arise.
Hey, drugmakers, make some liquid painkiller without red dye! We couldn’t find this anywhere when a kid who can’t have dyes had tonsils out. I had to get creative. Come on. Take your unnecessary chemical garbage out of routine drugs.
Am I really that unusual in never having used opioid narcotic pain-relief drugs?.
http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html has some information on opioid prescriptions and abuse. Number of painkiller prescriptions per 100 people varied by state, from 52 to 143. Even the low end of this range indicates that they are prescribed very heavily (although not necessarily all prescriptions are filled, and not necessarily all prescriptions which are filled are used completely).
There are liquid painkillers out there without dyes. When I worked in hospice I never saw a liquid/sublingual pain killer that had a dye in it.
Yes, ucb, you are unusual in never needing pain meds. Consider yourself lucky.
Many of us will have a major surgery, an injury, etc that leads to a prescribed pain med.
And since most of us will use a painkiller and since the vast, vast majority of us will never become dependent let alone addicted, I think the fear is overblown.
With that said, I do wish there was a better way of alerting doctors that a patient has or has had addiction problems to avoid giving them addicting pills.
Was talking to some people from Europe who mentioned that, in some countries there, it is typical to prescribe only the number of pills expected to be needed. E.g. 3 pain relief pills for a short term after surgery use, instead of 50 or 100 as described in #61.
Perhaps if that practice came to the US, it would significantly reduce the risk of intended short term users becoming addicts.
50 Vicodine seems like complete overkill and definitely not at all my experience. I don’t even think most insurance plans would pay for a prescription that large without some additional verification. I don’t think you can take one experience and make it seem like the norm.
I’ve been in a lot of different hospitals with a lot of different doctors. None would prescribe anywhere near that even when I was in excruciating pain.
How long ago was the incident where 2 prescriptions for 50 pills each were given? Was it recent? I think the awareness has changed a lot in just the past few years. What I’ve seen lately among family members is what is described above as the European example. I do live in a state that was one of the lower ones on the link in post #68, yet a state with a serious, growing heroin problem.
What is the incidence of short term users becoming addicts?
In our household, we have never used all the Rx pain relief we’ve been prescribed (childbirth, dental surgery, other procedures). we prefer to switch over to the OTC relief as so, as it’s usually better for titrating to need and makes us less loopy.
We probably out to discard all the old pain meds. Somehow, we haven’t. No one takes it of is interested.
I was given a Hydrocodone Rx by ER for kidney stones, last year: 10 pills, 3x/day = 3 days. “No refill.” I still have most and am allowed to take one or more if there’s another incident. But yes, just as often, Motrin does the trick. You just don’t know til you get there. And I cannot imagine taking one for some other (hypothetical) need without calling the doc.
Having relatives that liven Europe, I see some odd practices in their medical treatments too that aren’t limited to doling out prescriptions for any meds.
My MIL broke her shoulder and after an 8 hour wait to get an X-ray, was sent home with no treatment other than a few Tylenol .
They might not give out scripts for narcotics easily , but they do hand out antidepressants at an alarming rate in Scandinavia with little regard for the potential side effects , at least in the area that my husband is from. I think it is easier and cheaper than dealing with the underlying issues , which would require more access to mental health professionals.
My BIL is dealing with some pain issues that seem like they are related to spine/ back , although no pain meds have been offered…
Well, that might be completely inadequate, depending on the surgery and depending on the person. In fact, it probably would be (and I do realize you don’t necessarily mean exactly that amount) inadequate for most. Maybe some minor laparoscopic procedures might only mandate 3 pain pills . There are many surgical procedures that are pretty painful afterwards. Denying people pain relief based on a belief that they will probably become addicted after only a few pills would be ridiculous. There is no way to determine to that degree of accuracy how many pain pills a surgical patient “should” need. It’s too individual.
I had a friend who had an upper endoscopy in France. They gave her NO sedation. Can you imagine having a relatively large scope floated down your throat into your stomach with no medication? I’ve seen people endure a colonoscopy without sedation with varied results, but an upper endoscopy without medication is just cruel. So I’m not necessarily impressed with comparisons such as “In Europe they do xyz…”
I would like to see accurate statistics of “short term” narcotic users actually becoming addicts. I don’t think it’s nearly as high as people believe.
Some of these threads where people go on about how “I only took one pain pill after my surgery” remind me of some of the “I’m more frugal than thou” threads. Good for you. But it’s not a sign of weakness if a person needs or desires more pain relief than the next person. There is no way to determine what level of pain a person “should” or will have. That’s why docs tend to err towards giving more pills than might be necessary. It’s too variable from person to person to know for sure what the “right” number is. Which is not to say a person getting a tooth pulled should be prescribed 90 vicodins. I really don’t think that happens as much nowadays as people believe.
Some people have a lot of pain. Many of them benefit from narcotic pain relief. Not everyone can soldier through agonizing pain. Most don’t become “addicted” in the sense that they seek out narcotics after they are no longer in pain. We need to be careful that we don’t harm a great many people who have a legitimate need for adequate pain relief. That’s just not right.
THIS! I was trying to put my finger on what bugged me so much about a few of these posts and it is this.
It’s the same for people who are holier than thou about never needing anti-depressants or the like. Well, good for you but not all of us are lucky enough to be as “strong” as you are. 8-|
I’ve been in excruciating pain today, only getting out of bed probably about 10 times. Even typing has hurt on and off throughout the day. I truly, sincerely envy those of you who have never been in this type of pain (and envy slightly less the people who have been in this type of pain but who have been able to find pain relief through whatever means).
Pain is tricky because there is no way to “prove” that someone is in pain. Thus, since we can’t prove something with a microscope or a test, we’re inclined to believe it doesn’t exist. An unfortunate holdover of an otherwise very beneficial germ theory model of illness.