TU Doctor Fights Opoid Epidemic.

[WaveProf]

From the TP

http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/20 ... rt_m-rpt-2

[windywave]

So people put opiates on toilet paper these days, like LSD in the past?

[PeteRasche]

It's such a huge epidemic that I'm sure they're doing anything and everything.

Just this morning a coworker came in after leaving the other day with back pain. He had seen a doc and got a prescription for Vicodin. I somewhat jokingly said "don't end up doing heroin". He said "that's exactly what happened to my brother in law". (Oops, awkward... ) But that's how it's happening across the country, people being prescribed opioids for pain, getting hooked, and then finding heroin on the street is much less expensive.

[WaveProf]

Just this morning a coworker came in after leaving the other day with back pain. He had seen a doc and got a prescription for Vicodin. I somewhat jokingly said "don't end up doing heroin". He said "that's exactly what happened to my brother in law". (Oops, awkward... ) But that's how it's happening across the country, people being prescribed opioids for pain, getting hooked, and then finding heroin on the street is much less expensive.

Anthony Bourdain's episode on upstate Massassuchetts is pretty much entirely about that. The first place they tested increased prescriptions of opoids for pain was in upstate Mass, and a couple of decades later the numbers (and the impact on the community) was beyond profound. Ground zero for the epidemic. At least based on how he depicted it.

[PeteRasche]

It's really bad in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky.

[TUPF]

I have a condo within shouting distance of I-95 in downtown Philly. Just within the last couple of years I cannot tell you how many young homeless have taken up panhandling spots near the highway exits. Otherwise able bodied, mostly young men but a few women too. Heroin.

I am so scared of having anything to do with opioids that for both the emergency gall bladder surgery and the knee surgery I've had recently, I refused post op pain meds. I'd rather suck it up for a couple of days than risk any chance of it becoming a habit. Besides, that's what martinis are for.

[GreenieBacker]

read somewhere that 93% of prescription pain meds consumed worldwide are here in this country.

[AO Sig]

Tennessee and SW Va have had problems with this; the politicos are trying to tackle this big-time. Only Alabama has had more prescriptions for opiates per capita; one year there was 1.18 prescription written per capita here in Tennessee.

They are combating it via leglislation; we have to have 2 hours of training every licensing cycle on prescribing pain medications. New laws regarding pain management centers have been instituted, where Drs get in trouble if a certain percentage of their patients are prescribed above a certain threshold. While these are noble ideas, they have not solved everything; the pain clinics have devolved into "pill mills," where Drs. set multiple ones up using NP's and PA's, not much medicine practiced there

My specialty (rheumatology) is full of diseases in which pain is a hallmark; over 100 types of arthritis, and joint pain is the cornerstone. Despite this, I don't write a lot of opiates; I have patients in reputable pain management centers, but I limit the pain medications

I still see a lot of patients referred who are on exorbitantly high levels of pain medications; the PCP cannot figure out why the patient is not responding to the pain medication, not realizing that the pathway of pain the patient has with their disorder is not touched by opiates. This is a big issue; there are too many practitioners out there who know that these are pain medicines, but do not seem to understand the pathophysiology of the patients' pain.

[TUPF]

Glad to hear you are thinking about it deeply, AO. Whole strata of society are getting destroyed by overuse.

[Roller]

I told my rheumatologist that I did not want any opiates. I can't take Ibuprofen because it apparently interferes with my Atvorstatin. Consequently, I'm left with only Acetaminophen, which requires care and frequent liver function-tests.

So I've pretty much learned to live in pain.

[TUPF]

I told my rheumatologist that I did not want any opiates. I can't take Ibuprofen because it apparently interferes with my Atvorstatin. Consequently, I'm left with only Acetaminophen, which requires care and frequent liver function-tests.

So I've pretty much learned to live in pain.

So THAT explains the martinis!

Seriously. Feel better!

[Roller]

So THAT explains the martinis!...

Shhhh. You'll get windy all stirred up again.
(although if we fall behind, I may switch to gin. )

[TUPF]

So THAT explains the martinis!...

Shhhh. You'll get windy all stirred up again.
(although if we fall behind, I may switch to gin. )

Funny thing. When I was in my teens and 20s (drinking age was 18) I drank rum. In my 30s and 40s it was vodka, with the occasional glass of single malt scotch. But come my 50s and beyond, it's been gin, and Tanqueray at that. Been through Beefeaters, Hendricks, Boodles, Bombay but like the juniper heavy Tanqueray. It's funny how tastes evolve. For me, the only thing better than a summer Tanqueray G&T with Schweppes tonic is a winter Tanqueray martini, dirty, with 3 Tomolives.

[Roller]

So THAT explains the martinis!...

Shhhh. You'll get windy all stirred up again.
(although if we fall behind, I may switch to gin. )

Funny thing. When I was in my teens and 20s (drinking age was 18) I drank rum. In my 30s and 40s it was vodka, with the occasional glass of single malt scotch. But come my 50s and beyond, it's been gin, and Tanqueray at that. Been through Beefeaters, Hendricks, Boodles, Bombay but like the juniper heavy Tanqueray. It's funny how tastes evolve. For me, the only thing better than a summer Tanqueray G&T with Schweppes tonic is a winter Tanqueray martini, dirty, with 3 Tomolives.

Once again, our lives are parallel! Only with me, Gin and Vodka are reversed.

[windywave]

So THAT explains the martinis!...

Shhhh. You'll get windy all stirred up again.
(although if we fall behind, I may switch to gin. )

Funny thing. When I was in my teens and 20s (drinking age was 18) I drank rum. In my 30s and 40s it was vodka, with the occasional glass of single malt scotch. But come my 50s and beyond, it's been gin, and Tanqueray at that. Been through Beefeaters, Hendricks, Boodles, Bombay but like the juniper heavy Tanqueray. It's funny how tastes evolve. For me, the only thing better than a summer Tanqueray G&T with Schweppes tonic is a winter Tanqueray martini, dirty, with 3 Tomolives.

Once again, our lives are parallel! Only with me, Gin and Vodka are reversed.

tigah

[windywave]

Ironically the opiate epidemic is self inflicted

10 to 20 years ago there was a study that said Americans were living with too much pain because they weren't subscribed painkillers enough and the guidelines were changed to prescribe more pain killers. yay