After years of suffering from a degenerative back condition, Betty worried that she was already taking too many pills. But when her doctor reassured her that a long-acting opioid medication called Oxycontin would fight her pain without any negative repercussions,she decided to try it. At first the pills helped.as their effectiveness diminished, though, she had to take more pills to get any relief at all. "within even months I was taking 280 milligrams a day," says Tully, 68, who lives in Chicago. "that's the equivalent of 56 percocets a day. i was completely addicted."
HOOKED ?
When a new doctor balked at refilling her prescription, she discovered what heroin addicts go through when they can't get a fix. "My body was screaming for the drug. My brain was screaming for it. Health experts have long warned of a growing epidemic of addiction and overdose related to opioid prescription pain meds (morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone are the most common).statistics
Everyday, 46 Americans die from using prescription painkillers, In recent years, older Americans have increasingly fallen victim. Between 1993 and 2012, the rate of hospitalizations for prescription pain pill overdoses increased fivefold among people 45 to 85- much faster than for younger adults, according to the data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and quality. the rate of overdose deaths for adults ages 55 to 64 soared sevenfold. The group with the highest death rate was 45 - 54 age group, more than four times the rate for teenagers and young adults. And those statistics probably underestimate the true toll the epidemic of pain pills is taking on older Americans.fact
If a young or middle-aged person doesn't wake up in the morning, the death immediately looks suspicious and the medical examiner is called in. "But when an older person with multiple medical problems doesn't wake up, death is more often attributed to natural causes, even when the true cause is an accidental opioid overdose.
who is at risk ?
Older Americans are at high risk of running into trouble for several reasons,For one, they're more likely to suffer chronic pain and to be prescribed an opioid drug for it.
Second, the body's ability to clear drugs from the system declines with age, so a safe dose for younger people can be an overdose for older patients.
The danger is compounded when people are taking several different drugs that have to be cleared through the liver or kidneys - such as medications for heart disease or diabetes - as many older people do. "Adding opioid pain medications to a stew of other drugs is a very risky venture.
Opioid pain medications can also prove deadly for older patients who have trouble keeping track of their pills. If someone on an 80 milligram dose of oxycodone forgets they took it and takes another, there's a good chance of a fatal overdose,
Good intention gone bad
Opioid pain medications can help for acute pain- following an injury or surgery, for example, when they provide relief while the body heals, The can also control pain at the end of life. But because of the risk of addiction and overdose, opioids traditionally were rarely prescribed for cases of chronic pain.
That changed in the late 1990s with new campaigns that encouraged doctors to take chronic pain more seriously.
Backed by the American pain society, the American Academy of Pain Medicine and other professional groups, the campaigns had the laudable goal of encouraging doctors to be more aggressive in relieving chronic pain, which afflicts an estimated 100 million Americans.
One campaign, called "Pain is the fifth vital sign,"suggested that pain should be considered as important an indicator of health as blood pressure or pulse. But the push for wider use of painkillers was largely financed by drug-makers with a vested interest in making money, and they vastly understated the risks of addiction and greatly overstated the effectiveness of these drugs. Physician were given the impression that the drugs are far safer and more effective for chronic pain than they actually are.
Trick or treat
Between 1996 AND 2002, Purdue pharma, the maker of Oxycotin,funded more than 20,000 educational programs for doctors, many of them promoting long-term use of opioids for chronic pain.For more than a decade, we were told that these medications are safe and effective.
The campaign worked. over the next 15 years, the rate of opioid pain reliever use more than doubled in the U.S. consumption of oxycodone !
CULLED FROM AARP BULLETIN SEP.2015
No comments:
Post a Comment