Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2016
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2016 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Lois Ambash
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n162/a06.html

OPIOID USE AND ABUSE

Patients and Doctors Discuss the Management of Drugs That Can Be 
Helpful or Harmful.

To the Editor: For many people with chronic pain, opioid painkillers 
are a lifeline. The new guidelines from the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, while perhaps reasonable as a first approach, 
are unrealistic for patients who have done well (sometimes for years) 
on carefully monitored opioid doses under continuing medical care. As 
The Times has reported, these longtime patients must now be subjected 
to humiliating "pain contracts" and random drug tests.

Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are just short of laughable: If they 
worked for severe pain, no legitimate patient would be taking 
opioids. Nonpharmacological solutions like physical therapy and 
acupuncture may be effective for those who can afford them but are 
subject to strict, onerous insurance limitations or not covered at all.

It's hard not to conclude that the politics of the very real and 
tragic opioid addiction crisis are drowning out the cries of people 
in pain. The medical profession only recently began to give serious 
attention to complaints of chronic pain, which not incidentally 
affects many more women than men.

Sadly, it looks as if a return to the bad old days will be upon us very soon.

LOIS AMBASH

Needham, Mass.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom