After Mike Bloomberg's rule for hospitals, FDA panel votes to restrict use of painkil

[Stephanie]

oh well, you all voted for it, enjoy your pain

SNIP:
January 25, 2013 | 5:34 pm | Modified: January 25, 2013 at 5:45 pm
8Comments


Joel Gehrke

Commentary Writer
The Washington Examiner



Federal Drug Administration advisers voted today to restrict access to certain kinds of prescription drugs in an effort to fight drug abuse

The vote had experts divided over the risk of drug abuse as weighed against the risk of increased pain or difficulty for patients on the medication.

“It will have an impact on a lot of patients who have been receiving them for some time for legitimate purposes,” Dr. Lynn Webster, president-elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, said per Health Day News ahead of the vote.

The FDA rule change is designed to implement a policy that the Senate passed last year, but the U.S. House of Representatives killed.

“Under the new rules, refills without a new prescription would be forbidden, as would faxed prescriptions and those called in by phone,” The New York Times explains in reporting that the new rules passed by 19-10 vote. “Only written prescriptions from a doctor would be allowed, and pharmacists and distributors would be required to store the drugs in special vaults . . . advocates for nursing home patients, who said older, frail residents needing pain medication would now be required to make the arduous trip to a doctor’s office to continue using hydrocodone products.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who moved to restrict access to certain painkillers in city hospital emergency rooms in order to fight drug abuse, argued that it wouldn’t harm patients.

“Number one, there’s no evidence of that,” Bloomberg said. “Number two, supposing it is really true, so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect.”

“At the end of the day, the benefits of reducing abuse will outweigh the harm to legitimate pain patients,”(how wonderful eh?) Dr. Timothy Deer, a pain management specialist from West Virginia, told The Times. “This will likely reduce the amount of drug falling into the wrong hands.”

all of it here
After Mike Bloomberg's rule for hospitals, FDA panel votes to restrict use of painkillers | WashingtonExaminer.com

 

[Oddball]

But there'll be no rationing of care!

 

[Stephanie]

But there'll be no rationing of care!

you can't bring that up, they don't want to believe it

after all the FDA and this guberment surly knows what best for all of us

 

[Katzndogz]

Fighting drug abuse means restricting the people who want to legally buy painkillers and have a legitimate reason. It has nothing to do with stopping illegal drug use. This is just like the gun ownership debate. It's not to stop law abiding citizens from caring for themselves. It does nothing to stop criminal use. BUT there is a side benefit. If you are in constant pain that could be alleviated with pain killers, the government will offer you an option. You can accept euthanasia and then the government won't have your pain or your care to pay for.

 

[Truthmatters]

drs trying to control medication is not a fucking conspiracy you willy gits

 

[Rozman]

drs trying to control medication is not a fucking conspiracy you willy gits

you willy gits

I thought we were a bunch of Jizzy doodles...

 

[Stephanie]

drs trying to control medication is not a fucking conspiracy you willy gits

too bad they haven't tried controlling who owns a computer, maybe that will be next

 

[Katzndogz]

That's coming.

Hackers take over gov't website to avenge Swartz - CBS News

 

[Mad Scientist]

drs trying to control medication is not a fucking conspiracy you willy gits

It's Mayors trying to control Medications.

 

[waltky]

The painkiller dilemma...

The Struggle With Painkillers: Treating Pain Without Feeding Addiction
May 29, 2016 | WASHINGTON — The "wonder drug" pain medications of the mid-1990s have turned out to be a major problem – and a big disappointment.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said not only do they run a high risk of addicting the user, but they can actually make patients' chronic pain worse. Public awareness of the opioid crisis has grown in the past few weeks, after the sudden death of pop star Prince, who died in April after reportedly seeking treatment for painkiller addiction, as well as with recent legislation passed by the U.S. House on opioid abuse. “More than 40 Americans die each day from prescription opioid overdoses,” Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement earlier this month. “Overprescribing opioids -- largely for chronic pain -- is a key driver of America’s drug-overdose epidemic." A single opioid overdose can also kill, because it can result in respiratory distress. The number of those deaths has been rising to a high of 29,000 in 2014 -- the latest year for which the figures are available.

Of that number, 18,893 deaths were from prescription painkillers. The other 10,574 were from heroin, the opioid of choice when painkillers get too expensive or to difficult to obtain. In a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in April, Frieden and fellow researcher Debra Houry were blunt: "We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently."Vicodin, Oxycontin and their cousins, all synthetic versions of the narcotic found in the poppy flower, hit the market in an aggressive marketing rollout in the mid-1990s. They quickly became popular, providing a euphoric effect while they dulled pain. Studies at the time promised the drugs carried little risk of addiction.

Pain management

The introduction of the new drugs dovetailed with directives by medical experts for health care providers to focus more on pain management. Doctors began asking their patients to estimate their pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, giving patients more power over what drugs they were prescribed. It wasn't long before the drugs were getting used recreationally. Thirty-five year-old Nina, now clean, sober, and a successful caterer in Washington, D.C., was a recreational drug user in the 1990s. "People weren't tracking it like they are today," she said. "So I would 'lose' my prescription or it would 'fall down the sink' or I'd 'leave it behind at Grandma's.' "

Nina said it wasn't euphoria she was trying to achieve with her drug use; it was numbness that she wanted, because her mind was never quiet. Lou, a 60-year-old travel coordinator, also from Washington, D.C., worked as a pharmaceutical representative in the 1990s, a job that gave her access to drug samples in doctors' medicine cabinets. "I'd just take them," she said, smuggling home the controlled substances. She liked to experiment. The results were unpredictable. More than once, she went too far.

'It wasn't my time'

 

[Arianrhod]

I don't suppose any of you opinionators would be interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids?

 

[Arianrhod]

I don't suppose any of you opinionators would be interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids?

So I guess that would be "No, we aren't interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids," until one of you starts another of your "Doctors are MURDERING patients Because Obama!!11!!" threads.

Just wanted to be sure.

 

[Tresha91203]

I don't suppose any of you opinionators would be interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids?

So I guess that would be "No, we aren't interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids," until one of you starts another of your "Doctors are MURDERING patients Because Obama!!11!!" threads.

Just wanted to be sure.

My mother has been on pain meds and crippling for 30 years. Leave existing patients alone. She is 70 and has as many bad days as good. Without her meds, her quality of life is horrifying. Addiction is not an issue for her, as her doctor's declare she will never be able to get off them. There is no cure. It is degenerative. Once she became too old for the surgeries, her options were meds or suicide.

Is there a viable option now? She tried hypnotherapy, physical therapy, accupuncture, prolotherapy, a spinal cord stimulator she still has implanted, and countless homeopathic things. None of that stopped the pain nearly as well as the meds. I would appreciate the government respecting her privacy (code word for get out from between her and her doctor) in the same way they respect the privacy rights of women going to another sort of doctor.

If one wants to address illegal drug overdoses, fine. If one wants to use legally and appropriately prescribed meds as a last and final option to relieve chronic, incurable, lifetime pain, why does any government get input? It wasn't the mayor who found her curled up fetal on the bathroom floor in her own filth. It's not the mayor helping her bathe and wipe when she can't move. Its not the mayor holding her puke bucket so she doesn't have to try to race to the bathroom (she can't make it). She and her doctor's get to decide that. They test her blood every visit to be sure she is using her meds (not selling them) without overusing them. What is the problem the govt needs to fix here?

 

[Arianrhod]

I don't suppose any of you opinionators would be interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids?

So I guess that would be "No, we aren't interested in the statistics on deaths from overprescription of opioids," until one of you starts another of your "Doctors are MURDERING patients Because Obama!!11!!" threads.

Just wanted to be sure.

My mother has been on pain meds and crippling for 30 years. Leave existing patients alone. She is 70 and has as many bad days as good. Without her meds, her quality of life is horrifying. Addiction is not an issue for her, as her doctor's declare she will never be able to get off them. There is no cure. It is degenerative. Once she became too old for the surgeries, her options were meds or suicide.

Is there a viable option now? She tried hypnotherapy, physical therapy, accupuncture, prolotherapy, a spinal cord stimulator she still has implanted, and countless homeopathic things. None of that stopped the pain nearly as well as the meds. I would appreciate the government respecting her privacy (code word for get out from between her and her doctor) in the same way they respect the privacy rights of women going to another sort of doctor.

If one wants to address illegal drug overdoses, fine. If one wants to use legally and appropriately prescribed meds as a last and final option to relieve chronic, incurable, lifetime pain, why does any government get input? It wasn't the mayor who found her curled up fetal on the bathroom floor in her own filth. It's not the mayor helping her bathe and wipe when she can't move. Its not the mayor holding her puke bucket so she doesn't have to try to race to the bathroom (she can't make it). She and her doctor's get to decide that. They test her blood every visit to be sure she is using her meds (not selling them) without overusing them. What is the problem the govt needs to fix here?

Your mother should be left in peace, as should anyone struggling with chronic pain. I just find it interesting that there's an overlap between people who don't seem to understand that (A) many patients seek excessive amounts of pain meds, doctors are glad to overprescribe just to get them out of the office, (B) many doctors overprescribe pain meds because they are overworked or inattentive to the other meds their patients may be on and their accompanying side effects, and (C) these problems have been extant for decades, but some people have only just noticed them now and those who in what they think is an entirely different context (though it isn't) getting all bent out of shape about what they perceive (inaccurately) as the reasons for accidental patient deaths.

It's been proven over and over that patients given control of their pain meds (either palliative or due to chronic pain) use less medication than those dependent on a rigid dosing regimen. Further, to deny pain meds to someone with a terminal or intractable condition is unconscionable, and should be addressed.

But the uniformed get hyperfocused on "ZOMG, OBAMA/BLOOMBERG/GUBMINT!!!!" and only cloud the issue, IMO.

Then when you ask them to discuss the reality outside their precious little bubble, they disappear.

 

[waltky]

A surge in U.S infants born with symptoms of withdrawal from heroin or other opioids...

Surge in drug-affected newborns driven by rural opioid use
December 12, 2016 -- A surge in U.S infants born with symptoms of withdrawal from heroin or strong prescription painkillers is driven largely by rising drug use among women in rural areas, a new study found.

The problem in urban and rural areas was about the same in 2004 — about 1 in 1,000 births were affected. But by 2013, the rural rate had climbed to almost 8 in 1,000. In urban areas, it reached 5 per 1,000 births. The rates correspond with women's use of opioid drugs during pregnancy. This includes use or misuse of oxycodone and other prescription opioid painkillers, and use of illegal narcotics.

Newborns whose mothers use these drugs during pregnancy are at risk for seizures, excessive crying, problems with breathing, sleeping and feeding and other withdrawal symptoms. Treatment sometimes includes methadone and babies may need to be hospitalized for weeks or months.

The study, led by University of Michigan researchers, found that about 21 percent of U.S newborns with withdrawal symptoms in 2013 were from rural counties, up from 13 percent in 2004. To come up with their estimate, the researchers analyzed a dataset of U.S. hospital discharges compiled by the government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The results were published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

Earlier studies also found an increase nationwide, and other data show rural areas have been hard hit by the U.S. opioid epidemic. The new study shows there's an urgent need for more programs to make it easier for women in rural areas to obtain prevention services and treatment for addiction, the researchers said.

Surge in drug-affected newborns driven by rural opioid use

See also:

Neonatal abstinence syndrome
Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive opiate drugs while in the mother’s womb.

Causes

Neonatal abstinence syndrome may occur when a pregnant woman takes drugs such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone (Oxycontin), methadone or buprenorphine. These and other substances pass through the placenta that connects the baby to its mother in the womb. The baby becomes dependent on the drug along with the mother. If the mother continues to use the drugs within the week or so before delivery, the baby will be dependent on the drug at birth. Because the baby is no longer getting the drug after birth, withdrawal symptoms may occur as the drug is slowly cleared from the baby's system.

Withdrawal symptoms also may occur in babies exposed to alcohol, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and certain antidepressants (SSRIs) while in the womb . Babies of mothers who use other addictive drugs (nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana,) may have long-term problems. While there is no clear evidence of a neonatal abstinence syndrome for other drugs, they may contribute to the severity of a baby's NAS symptoms.

Symptoms

The symptoms of neonatal abstinence syndrome depend on:

* The type of drug the mother used
* How the body breaks down and clears the drug (influenced by genetic factors)
* How much of the drug she was taking
* How long she used the drug
Whether the baby was born full-term or early (premature)

Symptoms often begin within 1 to 3 days after birth, but may take up to a week to appear. Because of this, the baby will most often need to stay in the hospital for observation and monitoring for up to a week.

Symptoms may include: