The Opioid Crisis Is a Tragedy, but America’s Response Created a Second One | NYT Opinion
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- čas přidán 16. 08. 2023
- How does it feel to suffer from debilitating pain but not be able to get your hands on the medication that could help? In the Opinion video above, we hear from Americans who have had to endure this nightmare.
They are among the countless people with chronic pain who have been the unintended victims of the national crackdown on opioid prescribing. In response to the deadly opioid crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines intended to limit opioid prescriptions. That advice soon became enshrined in state laws across the country. Suddenly, many pain patients lost the drugs that made their lives bearable. Some sought relief in suicide.
Last year the C.D.C. issued new prescription guidelines intended, in part, to induce a course correction. But facing a confusing mess of federal and state laws, many physicians are still afraid to prescribe opioids to genuine pain sufferers.
America’s doctors have been put in a difficult position. But it doesn’t need to be this way. It is possible to stop overprescribing yet ensure that pain sufferers get the relief they deserve. The patients in our video have one message: Listen to us.
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There is a second part to this whole issue that I hope the NYT will further investigate. Even when I've been able to get a prescription there are two further issues. First, the insurance will often not pay for full prescription as written by the doctor. For instance, I was offered 7 days of a 30 day prescription. But a second much worse problem is that for some reason Pharmacies in my state say they cannot get the drugs at all. I haven't been able to get any medication for over 3 months and my quality of life has completely changed. I went from being able to manage the pain enough to participate in life, to now feeling like I'm a burden on my family, friends and society.
That poor lady. Her chronic pain has aged her face and body a decade or more beyond her true age.
I know six men that ended their lives, after they were forced off of their medicine. All worked back breaking labor for over 40 years, and couldn’t live in that pain. I know doctors who are literally quitting, because they can’t help their patients anymore. Horrifying cruelty.
I'm a chronic pain patient and lucky to have a doctor willing to treat my pain with opioids. My biggest issue is pharmacies and pharmacists who lie to me about not having it or it's always on "backorder" because they are limited on how much they can order and actually receive from distributors because of their poor practices (that they where sued for) I feel judged by them and because I don't look "disabled" or I'm younger or Iook like an addict because I'm having a painful day etc. Im able to get my medication for a few months before Im pushed off to another pharmacy. I have to submit to monthly urine and blood drug tests just to get the prescription. I feel like I'm on parole. I'm just tired of my character always being judged. I just want some respect. Any doctor who dumps a pain patients is putting their life at risk for suicide or making them seek out illegal, dangerous means of pain relief. These doctors are doing harm and not properly treating. There are alternatives which I've spent thousands over the years trying. Nothing gives me as much quality of life as opioid medication.
I’m one of these sufferers. The FDA is slowly killing us. The majority of us DON’T want to have to take an opioid! All I want is a minimum dose tablet, which I could cut in quarters-and take just 1/4 (1.25 mg) as a
People with severe anxiety disorders were abandoned too! Its a horrible way to live! 😢
This is exactly what happened to me.
I have had 6 spine surgeries and multiple spine injections. Pain medication allowed me to work full time and do outings with my family. I am 70 and with opioids medications, I am still working full time. The pain doctors have followed me for 12 yrs. I was recently told by 2 patriarchal male doctors that since I am 70 I no longer deserve pain medicine. I have to let them repeat office procedures which I have had multiple times before and do not work for them to prescribe inadequate pain medications. I heard one of these male doctors tell a woman with spontaneous spinal fractures that are very painful and cannot be corrected , she had to have office procedures also in order to get a prescription.This is a money making scheme in a clinic affiliated with the one big pain clinic in the state.
I never thought I’d see a piece from my perspective. I live from injection to injection, from radial frequency ablation to radio frequency ablation, still in constant pain, forty-two years after a spinal cord injury at the T5/6 level left my upper body doing all the work. Only one doctor, a pain management specialist, will write hydrocodone but it’s a small dose. I got through grad school, married, raised two great men, doing so much more than was expected of me. Now I’m left to pay for it because OTHER people abused this class of meds. The most depressing thing ever.
I was in agony for months waiting for a hip replacement. I could not sit, only lie down or stand, but the surgeon said he would get in trouble if he gave me pain medication. As I understand it the insurance companies are involved in denying pain medications to those with legitimate needs. It needs to be fixed.
Medication/Opiods for those who need them, should have them.
This is the most important news story to be in the New York Times in past 5 years!!! We have been left to suffer and become a completely disabled person because they won’t prescribe opioids. The research shows that WE do not become drug addicts or die of overdose! Illegal drugs are the issue here! I would vote for someone to be President of US if they promised to fix this issue!
I never could understand how ppl who legitimately need pain medications just can't get them but addicts can
As a Pain patient since before 2016 the best thing you can do is make sure that you bring a caretaker with you and I mean a caretaker that looks like a caretaker that’s reputable, family member, or a husband and a wife a mother a father when you’re having these discussions about pain management
Absolutely. I was shot in the chest by my ex. I lost my entire right lung and as u can imagine my body is wrecked by be hit by a speeding bullet. Severe nerve damage from having my lung ripped out, my body breaking down from being in so much pain that most of the time I can’t do much but sit on the couch or lay in bed. But I’ve been told over and over, “your pain is from taking opiates. Opiates actually do not work for pain. Higher levels won’t do any good, they just make your pain worse.” I’m 43 years old. I have 2 kids. I was blessed enough to survive, but that’s all I’m doing. Surviving. I want to live. I want to be at a level of pain where I am functional. The dr’s are wrong. I’ve been on a level of opiates before where my pain was managed. I’ve had to take them for 10 years so I have a high tolerance. Higher levels DO work. The govt has created a new crisis, and until they’ve had a 9mm bullet blow through their chest and then endured multiple endless surgeries on their torso front and back for 10 years, they have no idea what pain truly is. They don’t care that medical advances have allowed people to survive events that would have killed them 15-20 yrs ago…heck even 10 years ago. But what is the point in surviving just to suffer and wish you would have died???
This is horrific and really discouraging for my loved one who has a severe case of osteogenesis imperfecta. Thank you for bringing this to light.
This is me. We need to fight this bs and require we be treated on an individual basis. I'm in pain so constant that suicide seems all too often like my only option these days. Thank goodness for my grandchildren, or I might already be gone. It's just insanity. Those days when I can move freely without feeling like I'm being stretched on a rack, are the only thing that gives me hope, and that only happens when I have sufficient pain medication.
This whole thing hits so close to home. My mom has multiple sclerosis as well and she has had so many issues with doctors and pharmacies it’s ridiculous. She is trying to function and they are making it impossible. If you want an idea of how bad the pain can be she once broke her leg and didn’t get it treated for a few weeks because her normal pain is so bad a broken leg wasn’t even a blip on her radar. I feel like we treat animals in pain with more kindness than humans. It’s not ok.
This was too short and deserves more detail regarding this issue. People suffering from opioid addiction is a crisis and unmanaged pain is also a crisis. The United States is at a crossroads with regard to implementing policies that empower citizens and reflect our common values. Our empathy for each other allows us to know there is a problem here, but we are in a sea of suffering and need to try to think clearly about how to create policies that reflect both our diversity of opinions as well as a commitment to the common good.
Doctors have NOT gotten the message from the CDC telling them to keep prescribing for pain patients. Withholding is an ongoing problem in 2023 in spite of the suicide risks.