Did doctors who cared too much lead to the opioid epidemic?

Sometimes medicine offers us wonderful, almost unimaginable gifts. Heart attacks that were devastating, life-altering events a few decades ago are now treated with expediency and skill that our grandparents couldn’t imagine. A couple of days pass, and the victim is home with stents in occluded arteries and directions to modify activity and diet. Pneumonia, once the “old person’s friend” (so called because it took the aged to eternity), is far less terrifying, thanks to both antibiotics and the pneumonia vaccine. However, some of the things we do give benefits that are less clear. Although it could be an entire column in itself, the “stroke center” movement, with the promise of miracles from “clot-busting drugs,” is a thing full of as many questions as answers. And what about depression and antidepressants? When I looked up the side-effect profile of an antidepressant a friend was taking, I was reminded that all of them have the potential side effect of increasing suicidal behavior. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Meds Pain management Source Type: blogs