times these drugs are prescribed for real pain. Unfortunately, patients are not always good consumers and, like older adults, do not question their doctors when addictive medications are prescribed. Doctors tell patients to ‘get ahead of the pain’—if you wait, it will take longer to manage your pain. So your brain sends a signal that the pain is coming and you need to be prepared, so you beter take another pill. Tis is where the cycle of abuse begins. Tese factors all add to the epidemic and deadly problem of prescription drug abuse in our nation today. Many medications are potent but they
serve a purpose for relieving pain and suffering. Treating a person with chronic pain is especially challenging. Te question I always ask myself when a patient with chronic pain is coming into treatment is, “How can I help my patient manage their pain and still have a quality of life and good health?” An addiction to opioid painkillers is almost always a condition that sneaks up on a person. Almost every family is touched by the disease of addiction in one form or another, either with a relative or a friend. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, from 1994–2001, emergency
room visits for narcotic prescription pain relievers increased 352 percent for oxycodone, 230 percent for methadone, 210 percent for morphine, and 131 percent for hydrocodone . Tese statistics are appalling and, as a society, we must start changing our beliefs and atitudes or we will continue to lose more loved ones to this disease. Tere are many misconceptions about
addiction and those who suffer from it. Te 21st century addict is no longer the stereotype of a sad, lonely, loser junkie on the street. Instead, today’s addict is much more likely to get a fix by abusing prescription drugs than from a needle. Addiction is a terminal illness; people can die from it, both literally and psychologically. Te physical death from addiction can be caused by an overdose or accident, but in my experience the emotional and relational deaths can be even more devastating. Families become fractured, sometimes beyond repair, with patients falling into a void so deep that they lose hope of ever geting out. As we saw from David’s story, the face of addiction comes in many forms and the
treatment world is beginning to realize that we have to create accessible and effective treatment for the millions of people in our nation who suffer from it. Pain insists on being atended to and
pain medications can play a real role in pain management for some patients. Because prescription drugs can vary widely in their purposes and side effects, there are no clear-cut signs that predict addiction. However, medication is not the only form of treatment for pain and, as providers, we need to find and implement alternative methods for pain relief. To treat pain, we must treat the whole person. We must look at alternative therapies that encompass a variety of disciplines. Some of these disciplines include acupuncture, sensory integration techniques, stress management techniques, chiropractic treatment, yoga, biofeedback, aromatherapy, relaxation, herbal remedies, massage and many others. Te complementary use of alternative treatments, along with medication management and cognitive therapy, has been shown to reduce associated health and social costs by far more than the cost of treatment.
www.datia.org
datia focus
31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54