How the Opioid Epidemic Affects Chronic Pain Patients

“It is borderline genocide,” said DeLuca, 37. “You are allowing [chronic pain patients] to go home and essentially suffer until they kill themselves.” Last year, Lauren DeLuca went to the emergency room in the middle of the night, violently ill and in pain with a pancreatic attack. Despite the fact that she was passing out and vomiting profusely, DeLuca said that she received little help. “I was essentially turned away,” she told The Fix. “Everywhere [I went] I was being accused of lying, accused of making it up.” Over the next three weeks, DeLuca lost 20 pounds, unable to eat because of her pain and vomiting. Doctors, she said, were too paralyzed by the fear of overprescribing powerful opioid pain relievers to help her. Eventually, DeLuca’s arteries and organs were permanently damaged by her inability to eat, halting her plans to start a family, and leaving her with lifelong health issues. Even after all that, she had issues accessing the opioid pain relief that would make her life bearable. “I’m a continuous level 10 pain. If you don’t medicate me, I’m screaming,” she said. Frustrated and desperate, DeLuca founded the Chronic Illness Advocacy and Awareness Group, first as a Facebook community and later as an advocacy organization that aims to help chronic pain patients who feel that new opioid regulations put their lives at stake. “It is borderline genocide,” said DeLuca, 37, who lives in Massachusetts. “You are allowing them to go home and...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Disorders Health-related Medications Publishers Substance Abuse The Fix Chronic Pain opioid addiction Opioids Source Type: blogs