There has been a lot of press lately about opioids(60 minutes, CNN, NY Times etc.); They are still focusing on the prescription pills(Oxycontin etc.); HOWEVER: in the last few years, the main causes of overdoses have become the illegals: heroin, and the illegal pills(primarily from China, fentanyl analogues: carfentanyl etc.): people obtain the illegal pills off of the internet.
This has made it terrible for pain patients(only 8% of pain patients misuse, to an serious extent, the pain meds: the other 92% are punished for this); there is a “war” against pain patients(and doctors); it is very difficult to be a pain patient, who may need opioids, and also n=tough for providers as well…..very unfair…..L.Robbins,M.D.
It took me 5 years after the onset of NDPH to be willing to even consider taking hydrocodone and then only after trying and failing on all other treatments. I have never experienced the “euphoria” I read about. For me, hydrocodone takes the edge off the pain enough to allow me to go to work and function in life. I have taken the same dosage of hydrocodone for 5 years now. It frightens me tremendously to think I may be denied access to a medication that has greatly improved my quality of life. I do not want to spend the rest of my life whimpering in a dark room.
For me, when the dosage I take even slightly touches the “euphoria”, I always dial back because I don’t choose to live daily life in that zone.
I believe it is unethical, negligent and cruel for MDs to not prescribe opioids when that is the only option left. In addition, for pharmacists to refuse to fill a doctors order, in essence practicing medicine without a license, is illegal and against the Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct for Pharmacists.
Being a pain patient for 25 years, I don’t want to imagine what the quality of my life would have been without the use of narcotic pain medicine and the compassionate doctor who prescribed it.