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May 11, 2010 By Karen Wilkinson
They're often called doctor shoppers, border hoppers, pharm-aholics and even hit-and-runners. They count on states' lack of communication and exploit professionals whose job is to heal, hurting themselves and feeding others' addictions through such feats.
They're prescription painkiller addicts and, like other drug addicts, often go to extreme measures to get their fix. It's not a new problem, just one that's recently become more visible with high-profile celebrity deaths being caused by prescription pill overdoses.
"The least fun part of my job is managing medications," said Connecticut-based pain physician Dr. David Kloth, who referred to Michael Jackson -- formerly the King of Pop -- as the King of Drug Popping. "You are suspicious of everybody -- it's sad, but everyone is painted with the same broad brush."
It may be sad, but it's what doctors face every day. Pain pill-related deaths have risen significantly over the years, with overdose deaths becoming the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in 2002, just behind motor-vehicle injuries, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. This increased death rate stems from prescription drugs known as opioid analgesics -- powerful, addictive drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin that produce heroin-like effects -- that were increasingly prescribed in the 1990s to treat pain.
"Their potential for misuse was underestimated, and opioid analgesics quickly became the most popular category of abused drugs," the CDC report stated.
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A more accurate account would be:... "increasingly prescribed since the 1990s to treat pain" and seeing the problem skyrocket in the first decade of the 2000s to uncharted heights!
A more accurate account would be:... "increasingly prescribed since the 1990s to treat pain" and seeing the problem skyrocket in the first decade of the 2000s to uncharted heights!
A more accurate account would be:... "increasingly prescribed since the 1990s to treat pain" and seeing the problem skyrocket in the first decade of the 2000s to uncharted heights!
What you are overlooking is that people like MICHAEL JACKSON have enough MONEY TO BUY THE DOCTORS AND THE DRUGS..yet you are stopping people who really need the medication to have a better QUALITY OF LIFE. I have to fight for anything to get the medication to live. I shattered 2 part of my spine..for 16 years I dealt with the pain. Now I am older and the pain is more than I can handle. My Neurosurgeon recommended the pain pump. I barely walk the pain is so great, but I have had to go through the pain clinic for the past year doing everything, to no avail, except what my neurosurgeon recommended. Why should I have to go through this pain and so long to get the help my neurosurgeon KNOWS I NEED. He did my surgeries, he knows I am not faking it...WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!WHY DON'T I DESERVE TO GET THE HELP I NEED TO FUNCTION?
I understand what Linda is experiencing. A friend of mine is going through the same thing. He has had two back surgeries and countless epiderals to try to alleviate the pain. Yet, when he asks for pain meds...the docs treat him like a "pill head". Doctors...PLEASE NOTE that there are people out there who are NOT "pill heads" and REALLY NEED this pain medication just to lead a half-way normal life. Without some type of pain medication, people like Linda...and my friend are in sheer MISERY!!!! My friend has even often attributed his religion and his strong belief in God as his only savior from just ending it all. It is a shame that people who need pain medicine have to even consider suicide when there are medications out there that can help them if they would just be given access to them!
Hi, I am looking to develop a new algorithm which can be used to detect frauds done by Doctors by prescribing pointless tests. According to a report 18% of medical frauds are done in this way. Using such a mechanism doctor is able to prescribe a test to patient that is not related to patients diagnosis and / or symptoms. But I am not able to get data for testing my algorithm and further improvements in it. Could you please guide me for the same.
I believe in using the database to stop pill shoppers from using multiple doctors. BUT the real hardship issue is that now today doctors are so afraid to give out medication, that they take your money, give you just enough medication to stay under DEA;s radar, and could care less that you aren't getting enough medication to free you of your pain. This leads to people unable to work or function at home making them suicidal just cause they are in constant pain. And why wouldn't they contemplate it? Doctors just don't care anymore, they just want to make their $300 visits.