How the Role of Doctors is Changing in the Wake of the Opioid Abuse Epidemic

How the Role of Doctors is Changing in the Wake of the Opioid Abuse Epidemic Pushed and pulled by many competing interests, doctors are ultimately and unfortunately an important gateway to opioid-based prescriptions – and their abuse. Although providing medication to patients they see is a key part of their job, at this point an opioid-based prescription to relieve pain could cause suffering through its abuse or ease the physical suffering of chronic pain; knowing the outcome isn’t always certain. Doctors will likely always be willing to provide prescription opioids to some of their patients, and that is appropriate, but as an epidemic of prescription opioid abuse rips across the country, physicians are being asked to adjust their roles as potential prescription providers in favor of a more holistic and informed approach to pain management. This too is an important change in function. Treating patients holistically hasn’t always been physicians’ top priority. In the 1980s and ‘90s there was a surge of advertisements and information biased towards increased opioid use produced and distributed by some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioid-based prescriptions. These misleading recommendations encouraged doctors to prioritize pain treatment through the use of prescription opioids and downplayed any risks of addiction or even potential abuse. In response, doctors began prescribing these potentially fatal drugs in record numbers. From 1999 to 201...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Richard Taite Source Type: blogs