With all the recent ruckus over prescription opioids and sensational news headlines in the American press inciting fears of these medications, it is easy to believe that the United States is the only country facing such challenges. Apparently, the news is even worse from “down under” in Australia.
According to a brief news item — by Renee Viellaris and appearing in The Australian on January 19, 2013 [here] — physicians will “begin weaning some patients off pain medication as the nation's insatiable habit of pill popping has left health and law enforcement agencies buckling under pressure.” New pharmaceutical guidelines, to be presented this year to state and federal health ministers, will disallow prescribing some patients with “highly addictive and popular pain pills.”
The news report claims that the move has been prompted by the financial drain on the federally-funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from excessive analgesic prescribing, misuse of the medicines, and “research showing long-term use of opioids is counterproductive.” Based on 2010 figures from the Australian National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), in that single year demand for subsidized prescriptions for two types of popular analgesics — oxycodone and fentanyl — cost taxpayers an extra $18 million [$18.9 million USD].
Dr. Steve Hambleton, federal president of the Australian Medical Association, confirmed that “some patients with noncancer pain would have to be weaned off the drugs because they were too expensive and were no longer clinically appropriate. Patients with long-term back or hip pain and those with sporting injuries who take the popular drugs face being directed to alternative therapies, including yoga.”
Hambleton called for more money from government to set up chronic pain clinics in hospitals, but conceded that the new regulations will dramatically change how pain is treated, and at a time when policy makers are also coping with an ageing population. “Some patients will have to be weaned off (and will have to do) things like physical therapy and focus on what you can do and not what you can't — more of a positive attitude,” he said in the news article.
The news report concludes that, “Research provided by NCETA shows that the per capita amount of morphine-equivalent drugs Australians are taking has exploded in the past 30 years.” Furthermore, “the number of Queenslanders on opioid dependence programs is dramatically increasing.”
COMMENTARY: The news report, brief as it is, tells a grim story of what may lie ahead for patients with chronic pain in Oz. And, unfortunately, this is not unlike what is occurring or may happen in other parts of the world, including the U.S.
Our quick scan of the websites of Australian organizations — Chronic Pain Australia serving patients/advocates, and the Australian Pain Society serving healthcare professionals — found no mention of these dire developments. Among other concerns, it would be interesting to know of what research evidence authorities are examining that proves the long-term use of opioid analgesics is “counterproductive.”
The news article notes that the number of persons in Queensland entering opioid-dependence treatment programs has been “dramatically increasing.” However, an accompanying chart shows the rise was only 19% — from roughly 4,900 to 5,800 persons — during the 5-year span 2008 to 2012. It does not say what proportion was attributable to prescription opioid abuse/addiction, or whether this was actually a favorable trend suggesting that more persons with substance-use problems are seeking and getting much needed care. [The U.S. CDC had presented some time ago similarly puzzling data on treatment-program admissions, discussed in an UPDATE here.]
Saving money on federally-funded prescription plans may seem like a worthwhile goal, but we wonder if authorities have considered the unintended consequences — financial and otherwise — of leaving large populations adrift to suffer chronic pain. It seems rather cavalier to suggest that these patients should adopt more positive attitudes and participate in alternative therapies, like yoga, since such interventions only work if they can get out of bed and move nimbly about without adequate pain-relieving medication.
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8 comments:
Again it is to get money for bigger gov.rather than a reasonable use of highly concentration of an alkaloid.I had to suffer through every magical approach by my md,lasting 12 yrs,including all sorts of ssri,etc magical cures,tours,before I went to a local drug dealer and got some measure of relief,which enabled me to cultivate hope and dream of one day(15yrs) later, when I could work without drawing upon my superhuman abilities to endure suffering,like a foot bone sticking out of my flesh,filling my boot with blood,changing a couple of times a day,for months on end,while developing a business,standing on concrete for 14-19 hrs a day,I WANTED TO LIVE.
My cries fell on deaf,globalist ears.So I suffered honestly,learned compassion for others' suffering,giving of myself to GOD,COUNTRY, OTHERS,SELF .CREED guides me with the Holy Spirit as my constant companion,I trust no one after this experience,and I took care of my fragile elderly,critical to the end,wise.So if the medical community is putting money and chicanery above the welfare of the suffering,then they have declared their incompetency,and must find other less harmful occupations to corrupt,and let us old wise dogs handle,train the ones in need.Simply said,the medical,legal community iscsick from attorney mal practice manipulation of the bond of the people with those charged with addressing human suffering,look how animals are tested on,and I lost over twenty years of my best productive time to this imbelcilic entity.It is quickly coming to a time of accountability for those that enjoyed a special role of trust,that clearly has been violated by corruption of our collective agreement to each other,the Golden Rule,hyjacked by narcissists.When will people start giving the evil eye treatment to criminals again,not until critical thinking is admired for the results it can deliver in most areas of concern.Don't forget what is coming because we let bath salt in to our youth because of a technicality,then expect another type of insanity to emerge,new age psychosis from LSD,and other new mentalities,next generation paying for trips parents took,bath salts,you really going to sut there on a technicality?????????????
This is very sad what people in chronic pain face each and every day ,its enough to make a person want to give up reading all these negative stories on how opioids are so evil. Now taking away life saving medications that help these people get out of bed to live a somewhat normal life will pay a huge price. I can only speculate what will happen some chronic pain patients will just give up because they cant take the ongoing never ending chronic pain anymore if their pain treatment plan is taken away.Then the problem will shift to a aging group of people thinking suicide is their only way out. I'm not in anyway saying suicide is a option, all that suffer from chronic pain just want a somewhat normal life, my religion does not permit suicide and I would never do that to my family. For those suffering every day for years on end their life has been torn to pieces and now yoga is going to fix that , I think not. I feel bad for all that suffer from chronic pain, I know what its like.
For 10 years doctors made me suffer for no reason, then I found a doctor that finally worked with me to help me get my never ending severe chronic cervical pain under control. I was amazed and so thrilled I finally got my life back on track and I was able to care for myself again from grocery shopping to keeping my place clean to walking 3 miles 5 days a week.
Now if this way of life is taken away from me and other suffering people and they have to go back to their old life of suffering we will have tragedy after tragedy of suffering people just giving up on life, after all what do suffering people really have to lose, these people has lost most everything that has any meaning.
I advocated for those in chronic pain for 8 years on the website“ The National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain” Dr. Joel Simon Hochman was my Pain Specialist from 1999 to 2010 and we had a good thing going. We where the first website to reach out and advocate for people that where suffering from chronic pain find relief.
The DEA wanted our website closed down because we where actually helping people in chronic pain find pain relief. We had a great chat room for all that suffered from chronic pain to interact with others that suffered as they did. Then in September of 2010 Dr. Hochman found out he had kidney cancer, 3 days later he was gone and we had to close down our website.
I've seen nothing but a sad state of affairs take place on the subject of Chronic pain and opioids here in the U.S. in the past 4 years. I just don’t understand why people that suffer the most from chronic pain have to pay the price because of those that abuse these life saving medications. Does everyone really think detoxing people that suffer from chronic pain is the answer to the misuse of these medications.
Mark S. Barletta
I can't believe what I am reading. The austrailian government wants to replace pain medicines that work with holistic medicine junk like a positive outlook? This is outrageous and tantamount to torture. I hope things change around for the better. Society and universities should be able to remove degrees from doctors and scientists. As a scientist, I want to puke when I hear doctors and scientists ramble on about holistic medicine. That should be reason enough to lose board certifications.
I can't wait for Austrailia and The United States to follow these anti-opioid medicine pied pipers. Untreated chronic pain already does significant damage to the economy. Banning opioids will only increase the amount of people who can't work and damage the economy even more. Without pain medicines, I can't work. I work hard to support my family and make good money. Without pain medicines, I will just collect welfare and lie in bed all day. I hope those government accountants took facts like that into account. It seems that government officials have poor planning and don't really forsee that these decisions will hurt everyone. The unintended consequences will be catastrophic to say the least.
I like how austrailians pay their high taxes to have affordable and appropriate healthcare and the government doctors want to treat pain patients with yoga and good attitudes. What a rip off. What's next, are they going to substitute sugar water for insulin? Are they going to put burn victims in a freezer to cool them off. This absurd. Furthermore, opioid medicines are cheap. It would cost governments a lot more money to pay for physical therapy and injections or other outpatient procedures. And not everybody is a candidate for physical therapy. It is almost as if the government thinks humans have the regenerative qualities of an axolotl salamander. People can be irreparably broken physically.
I am a pain patient and a full time MD. Without my meds, I would not be able to get out of bed, get dressed, walk, do stairs, go to work, look after my family. This whole argument terrifies me. I see my own dr. getting older and fear he might retire soon. If his replacement turned out to be less understanding, I would just lie down and die.
there is a large group of people i connect with on the net who are fet up with people coming after us as the bad guys when we are just trying to have some sort of life and have decided if they do come for our medications then the new stallone movie title is going to be our final move as a group all together on the steps of some grandiose house of political power or monument of freedom that they had stripped us of so that there could be no mistaking why we died how we died and who's hands our blood was on.Currently my republic kin governor has taken me from a personal care aide 80 hours a week to none at all,i can't use my right side i can not shower i can not wash my back, do laundry sget groceries none of that i can lift 2 1/2 pounds and am dying so i suppose when the dog food runs out after i die and theres no fresh water my dog will make aracket and someone will find my bloated smelly maggot ridden corpse ,thank you Mr ,Governnot thats the Honorable death a man who dedicated his life to public service always wanted.
I suffer chronic pain every day and I am so sick of hearing all this hoopla that we are having to go through.Don't they realize more pain, causes other organs to shut down? It just starts a whole cascade of problems if the pain is not controlled. I did not ask to please take pain pills the rest of my life. A Orthopedic made that up for me with an epidural injection in my lumbar spine. MRI after 3 ESI's confirmed that I had Arachnoiditis. It is a horrible disease and would not wish it on anyone.
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