Re:With a 10-day supply of opioids, 1 in 5 become long-term ...
by DanBC on Sunday March 19, 2017 @02:05PM
(#13908663)
I'm telling you that people with severe pain need treatment for that pain, but also that if the pain is long term that treatment is probably not opioid meds.
People with real pain sometimes should not be given opioids.
Your suggestion (that the problem is fixed if we stop giving opioids to people who aren't in pain) misses the fact that most of the opioid problem is because people in real actual pain have been misprescribed opioids.
I am not sure if we agree or disagree. There ARE legit people with bad backs that need and should get pain meds. There are also millions of people with a prescription to an Opiod that have no actual pain.
For example, see
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/02/kentucky-...
Are you telling me almost 1 in every 2 people in that town have debilitating pain, and NEED Opiods to survive day to day? I cannot believe that is true.
> Why is the US getting it so wrong though? Why is the US prescribing such vast quantities of opioids?
Many reasons.
a) Doctors get paid to do stuff. If you refuse to give medicine, no one will come to you, and you won't get money. So in the doctors financial interest to prescribe.
b) Some people really DO need medicine. Do you risk screwing those that DO need it to spite the rest of the people?
c) Culture. American lifestyle loves pop a pill to fix a problem. If you can equally fix something with physical therapy or a pill, 9/10 people will pop a pill.