Double dose of opioid pain relievers for abdominal pain
According to a new research in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology the dose of opioid prescribed medications for chronic abdominal pain had doubled in U.S. clinics between 1997 and 2008.
If we have a chronic abdominal pain we will go to the doctor. In many cases it is incurable; the doctors often find it challenging to help their patients manage their abdominal pain over time.
Spencer D. Dorn, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina and lead author of the study declared:
"The patients with persistent abdominal pain want to use opioid in order to control chronic illness without the integrated approach that medical professionals suggest.”
The scientists concluded that there are some certain reasons in opioid usage to treat chronic abdominal pain. They are:
- Taking opioids for the treatment of non-cancer chronic pain is supported by very limited evidence
- Opioids are often misused and sometimes abused
- When opioids are used for a long time, they may cause other gastrointestinal symptoms such as constipation, nausea and vomiting and may even increase abdominal pain
The scientists also think that the growth in the usage of opioids has likely been caused by numerous factors such as a tendency to generalize recommendations for opioid usage in preventing pain, campaigns to recognize pain as the "fifth vital sign" and widespread advertising which was considered incorrect and illegal.
Comments
(1)Less than 5 people dying out of 100,000 in the patluopion per year is not an epidemic when you consider that most of the overdoses are people who were aged or quite sick and taking heavy medications to deal with cancer or other pain. You need to stop trying to manufacture a drug crisis that does nothing except make it impossible for people with real and legitimate pain to get adequate pain control. Those of you who lost the war on drugs have finally fastened on an issue that you think you can make headway on. Do doctors need to be educated? Sure. But facts don't merit the daily hysterics of this website. The real problem and the REAL scandal is that treatment on demand is not available for the handful of Rx addicts who need it. Why isn't this website running articles about the waiting times for addicts to get into detox or long-term treatment? Why aren't you complaining about the states that make addicts, at the most vulnerable moment in their lives, sign a contract to pay for treatment whether they complete it or not? Why don't you write about the funded, but ridiculously ineffective drug programs whose five-year follow-up rates are worse than natural attrition in terms sobriety? No, better we should go out and arrest a few doctors that legitimately try to help their patients