Pain has only been seriously considered as a diagnostic tool since the 1990s, when pain assessment scales were popularized as a “5th vital sign.” In the same decade, opioid painkillers, such as OxyContin, began to be marketed as a non-addictive alternative to heavy narcotics. The change in this approach toward understanding pain in medical practice, coupled with the rescheduling of prescription opioids, led Americans to a more comfortable relationship with pain medications. Two decades later, however, opioid related overdoses have soared. Their questionable medical efficacy and addictive potential make these drugs, and the casual nature with which they have been prescribed, a threat to patient and public health. Though clinic use of certain
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Informed patients suffering pain, though, have more control over the outcome of their care than those resigned to an opioid crutch. Pain is a neural signal used by the body to prevent further damage from occurring. Outside of active cancer treatment and palliative, end-of-life care, chronic pain is a symptom that should not be ignored. Unfortunately, the only function of opioid medications is to mask the pain and, effectively, ignore it. Relying on such medications for treatment can actively impede diagnosis and, therefore, recovery. An additional hindrance to patient recovery, which Robinson (2015) found in her survey, is that 51% of patients on opioid therapy show signs of misuse and a further 30% show definite misuse, suggesting that they are misleading their physicians and, thereby, effectively sabotaging their treatment (p.1321). Moreover, since many of the physical reactions to opioid withdrawal mimic chronic pain, it becomes unclear whether these drugs soothe actual physiological pain or merely their own side …show more content…
$25.6 billion of this amount was lost from workplace productivity, through absenteeism, unemployment and premature death of employees. (Birnbaum, 2011, p. 661). While the economic impact of healthcare does not fall within the purview of most doctors and nurses, the casual prescribing of opioids may also affect them. Birnbaum and his colleagues (2011) found that, at the height of the epidemic, prescription opioid abusers were responsible for only $5.1 billion in law enforcement costs but $25 billion dollars in healthcare (p. 661). Those resources were spent maintaining a problem rooted in their own practices, which have been profitable, but not beneficial to the patients they are charged with
Informed patients suffering pain, though, have more control over the outcome of their care than those resigned to an opioid crutch. Pain is a neural signal used by the body to prevent further damage from occurring. Outside of active cancer treatment and palliative, end-of-life care, chronic pain is a symptom that should not be ignored. Unfortunately, the only function of opioid medications is to mask the pain and, effectively, ignore it. Relying on such medications for treatment can actively impede diagnosis and, therefore, recovery. An additional hindrance to patient recovery, which Robinson (2015) found in her survey, is that 51% of patients on opioid therapy show signs of misuse and a further 30% show definite misuse, suggesting that they are misleading their physicians and, thereby, effectively sabotaging their treatment (p.1321). Moreover, since many of the physical reactions to opioid withdrawal mimic chronic pain, it becomes unclear whether these drugs soothe actual physiological pain or merely their own side …show more content…
$25.6 billion of this amount was lost from workplace productivity, through absenteeism, unemployment and premature death of employees. (Birnbaum, 2011, p. 661). While the economic impact of healthcare does not fall within the purview of most doctors and nurses, the casual prescribing of opioids may also affect them. Birnbaum and his colleagues (2011) found that, at the height of the epidemic, prescription opioid abusers were responsible for only $5.1 billion in law enforcement costs but $25 billion dollars in healthcare (p. 661). Those resources were spent maintaining a problem rooted in their own practices, which have been profitable, but not beneficial to the patients they are charged with