In their quest to meet patient need and demand for chronic pain relief, American doctors are often forced by consumer demands and practice challenges to prescribe and over prescribe narcotic painkillers. Their training and experience have not focused on alternative treatment options, until now.
Drug-Dangers in Dosages
According to a National Safety Council (NSC) 2016 Survey, 99% of medical doctors prescribe highly-addictive opioids – and for longer than the three-day period recommended by the CDC. The venerable Wall Street Journal went as far as referring to prescribing doctors as “the enablers of an earlier generation of American pain-pill abuse”.
Additionally, 74% of doctors incorrectly believe that morphine and oxycodone, both opioids, are the most effective ways to treat pain. Furthermore, the problem has reached the point where painkillers with high addictive potential, which include commonly prescribed drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, now account for more drug overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
Misinformation particularly seems to be at play when it comes to tackling back pain. While more than 70% of doctors say they prescribe narcotic painkillers for back pain…these drugs are not considered the ideal treatment for either condition, according to the National Safety Council. Interestingly, the NSC found in an earlier survey that roughly half of all patients are actually more inclined to see their doctor again if non-narcotic painkillers are offered.
In only a few years, OxyContin became the leading cause of opiate prescription overdose in the U.S. Purdue racked up revenues, and four years after it was introduced, OxyContin was generating more than a billion dollars in annual sales. Today, we are facing a situation where the good intention of pain relief was upended by special interests. The appalling irony is that studies have not shown any collective improvement in chronic pain.
Where Do We Go From Here?
In March 2016, the CDC released a new set of guidelines to reduce the use of opioids to treat chronic pain,16 while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the National Pain Strategy, outlining a road map for providing all patients appropriate, high-quality and evidence-based care for pain.
The CDC guidelines and the National Pain Strategy share an important element to address the out-of-control opiate environment in the U.S.: encouraging medical doctors to utilize non-pharmacologic, conservative care and consider non-addictive alternative options, behavioural changes and non-addictive pain relievers.
What must be realised is that, as a nation, we simply cannot afford to proceed in a mode that promulgates “business as usual.” Americans, constituting only 4.6 percent of the world’s population, have been consuming 80 percent of the global opioid supply, and 99 percent of the global hydrocodone supply. The health and welfare of millions of Americans is at stake, with many lives literally hanging in the balance. Thus, the time to fight this drug rampage is now!
