Pain meds and tranquilizers are killing white women

[MillCreek]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/wp/2016/08/31/2016/08/31/opiods-and-anti-anxiety-medication-are-killing-white-american-women/?tid=sm_fb

When we see this in our clinics, we are weaning them off one or the other.  Most commonly, the patient continues the narcotics for chronic pain, and we are taking them off the benzos.

[Ben]

I'm certain these prescription combinations were a major contributing factor to my mom's death.

[Balog]

"With each new problem, doctors sent her home with more pills."

This is essentially my problem with the Western approach to medical care. I don't dispute that all of the drugs etc are powerful tools, but we as a society have rejected addressing the causes in favor of medicating the symptoms. While Eastern or naturopathic (not homeopathic, which is pure unadulterated quackery) approaches tend to not have the "big hammer" of powerful medication, they are far superior and making those tools unnecessary. Look at something like depression. For many people, a regime that emphasized getting enough sleep, better nutrition, and copious amounts of exercise would completely obviate the need for protracted anti-depressant use. But in our fat ass screen addicted drive through culture served by doctors who don't want to spend 1 second more with you than they have to in order to keep their billing up, we just shovel pills down patient's throats. Then more pills to counteract the side effects from the first. The three more to counteract the side effects of combining the first two etc etc.

For pain and anxiety medication this causes massive jumps in overdoses and deaths from interactions. For antibiotics it will cause another global pandemic.

[zxcvbob]

Are narcotics even effective for chronic pain?  They are very effective for acute pain, but after a day or two of Vicodin (10-325's) for back pain, Aleve seems to work better if I take 2 pills twice a day instead of just one.  And that also helps my Vicodin stash last longer.

[MillCreek]

^^^^There is more and more medical literature coming out recently showing that chronic opioids just do not work all that well for many types of non-cancer chronic pain.  This is especially true for using opioids for longer than four months for chronic lower back pain.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

A shrink has a vested interest in keeping the pills going. He gets to bill the insurance for a visit.  A very short visit.
Breaking the depression cycle with proper rest diet and exercise is great. Ideally the pills would be a way to tide a patient over till the other things can help. Instead folks depend on the pills. It's a shortcut that avoids having to exercise and learn good eating and resting routines.

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[Ben]

Is there a big difference in anti-anxiety meds versus depression meds re combinging meds and the OP? My mom was on anti-anxiety meds because her physician felt she would work herself up too much (very true) anytime she started feeling sick or having pain. I guess he figured if he could keep her calmer, he could work on cutting down on the opiate side.

[MillCreek]

A shrink has a vested interest in keeping the pills going. He gets to bill the insurance for a visit.  A very short visit.
Breaking the depression cycle with proper rest diet and exercise is great. Ideally the pills would be a way to tide a patient over till the other things can help. Instead folks depend on the pills. It's a shortcut that avoids having to exercise and learn good eating and resting routines.

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If I could only tattoo this on the forehead of the patients, so they had to look at it every day in the mirror and maybe start doing it, the world would be a better place.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Its,tuff . Its to get motivated when depressed. The exercise diet and rest thing works for many things. Can reduce or eliminate some meds

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[Hawkmoon]

American doctors love their meds ... and the VA Healthcare System is no exception. I had an acute gallstones attack back in June. It was bad enough that it landed me in the ICU for the better part of a week. They had me on morphine while I was in, then when they sent me home (with a drainage tube sticking out of my side) after a week, they gave me a month's supply of some opiate or other (Tramadol, IIRC). Which I put on a shelf and ignored.

Two weeks ago I was back in, to have the gallbladder removed. This time they sent me home with a month's supply of Oxycodone. Which, like the other, I put on a shelf and never opened. In fact, I didn't even need Tylenol. I was more than a little surprised. I would have thought that the VA, of all places, would avoid prescribing narcotics if there was any way to not do so.

[RoadKingLarry]

I shared that on my wife's book-o-face page. I won't bee getting any for a while.

[LadySmith]

The medical establishment has certainly gotten ridiculous with its prescriptions.
After I had surgery, the hospital refused to release me until I picked up a prescription for pain meds because "It's the doctor's orders." The discharge nurse kept repeating that no matter how many times I told her I neither needed nor wanted the drugs. So I sighed and told her I'd be back. That was in 2009. I wonder if she's still waiting.

Does anyone remember when doctors used to try to find out what's causing a problem instead of doling out pills for the symptoms?

[lupinus]

After my wife had her stomach surgery she was sent home with the biggest bottle of liquid medicine I've ever seen. Codeine iirc.

I don't think she opened the bottle once.

On the head meds, it's a two edged sword. A lot of folks have them that just never learned to deal with life. These folks need a good dose of either suck it up buttercup, or therapy. On the flip side when we're talking actual imbalances that need meds, it's nice not having to go through another round of going to a shrink that doesn't do a whole lot for you.

[agricola]

As with most healthcare discussions, a comparative look the scale of the problem in the rest of the West would perhaps be instructive.

[Balog]

After my wife had her stomach surgery she was sent home with the biggest bottle of liquid medicine I've ever seen. Codeine iirc.

I don't think she opened the bottle once.

On the head meds, it's a two edged sword. A lot of folks have them that just never learned to deal with life. These folks need a good dose of either suck it up buttercup, or therapy. On the flip side when we're talking actual imbalances that need meds, it's nice not having to go through another round of going to a shrink that doesn't do a whole lot for you.

I'm sure there are some chemical imbalances that can only be treated with permanent medication, but nutrition and exercise can replicate and exceed the results of pills in many cases. And the only side effects are better health.

[Hawkmoon]

Does anyone remember when doctors used to try to find out what's causing a problem instead of doling out pills for the symptoms?

I think only that 145-year old guy from Malasia (or wherever) could possibly be old enough. I graduated from college in 1966. Even in my freshman year we learned quickly that the infirmary was color coded. No matter what anyone went in for, there were three choices -- the yellow pills, the blue pills, or the red pills. If one of those didn't work, the infirmary wasn't going to have the answer.

[Jamisjockey]

I would have guessed it was the pumpkin spice lattes.

[dogmush]

If 800mg of ibuprofen and a quart of water can't fix it,  you're gonna die.

[tokugawa]

Don't worry, when you really, really NEED pain relievers, they won't prescribe them- so it will all balance out, in the end.

[Balog]

As with most healthcare discussions, a comparative look the scale of the problem in the rest of the West would perhaps be instructive.

Do you have any stats for the rest of the Western world? Honestly curious, I haven't seen any.

As with any cross country discussions, it is useful to note the factors making such comparisons fraught and the lessons to be learned more difficult. Nowhere in the West has the population, lack of social cohesion and trust, and abundance of anomie that the US does.

[AJ Dual]

I wonder what the death toll is from all the Rx's pumped out into the inner cities under the "new/alternative welfare" of SSI/Disability and the "medical conditions" people have to qualify. Either to the original recipients, or to those whom they sell the meds as a secondary income stream.

[makattak]

Nowhere in the West has the population, lack of social cohesion and trust, and abundance of anomie that the US does.

But Angela Merkel is working hard to change that.

[lupinus]

I'm sure there are some chemical imbalances that can only be treated with permanent medication, but nutrition and exercise can replicate and exceed the results of pills in many cases. And the only side effects are better health.

Absolutely. There are also folks that need the shrink part of the equation.

But there's also plenty of folks that benefit from the meds and don't need the shrink. In those cases it's nice having a doc that is wiling to prescribe without making you jump through hoops with a therapist.


Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I wonder what the death toll is from all the Rx's pumped out into the inner cities under the "new/alternative welfare" of SSI/Disability and the "medical conditions" people have to qualify. Either to the original recipients, or to those whom they sell the meds as a secondary income stream.

Do turf war casualties count?

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[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I wonder what the death toll is from all the Rx's pumped out into the inner cities under the "new/alternative welfare" of SSI/Disability and the "medical conditions" people have to qualify. Either to the original recipients, or to those whom they sell the meds as a secondary income stream.

Do turf war casualties count?

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