Thursday, May 18, 2017

Do You Know the Difference Between Addiction Tolerance and Dependence? Some Physicians Don't

It's important the public understands these two things about opioid use.

First that anyone who takes opioid medications for over a week or so will develop tolerance and physical dependence. 

The second thing is that tolerance and physical dependence alone does't mean someone is addicted. 

It's critical that physician's not confuse tolerance and physical dependence in pain patients with addiction. Many physicians either don't understand this fact, or choose not to treating many pain patients like drug addicts.

Addiction is a primary, chronic, neurobiologic disease, with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. It is characterized by behaviors that include one or more of the following: impaired control over drug use, compulsive use, continued use despite harm, and craving.

Physical Dependence is a state of adaptation that is manifested by a drug class specific withdrawal syndrome that can be produced by abrupt cessation, rapid dose reduction, decreasing blood level of the drug, and/or administration of an antagonist. 


Tolerance is a state of adaptation in which exposure to a drug induces changes that result in a diminution of one or more of the drug's effects over time.

Pain Patient vs Abuse
What's the difference between a pain patient and someone who abuses the medications their pain management physician provides?

The pain patient uses their medications to reduce their pain be more active and improve their quality of life.

Someone who abuses the medications will use a months prescription in a couple weeks, leaving to turn to the street for additional drugs, or become very sick for several days. This type of lifestyle causes harm to the person using as well as family, friends.



Wednesday, May 10, 2017

PAIN HELPED HIM PULL THE TRIGGER

We will see a lot of pain and death from the new pain guidelines

Please Read and Share


If someone abuses their medications, that's sad.
If someone takes their life because of under treated pain, thats tragic 

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Male Patients Chemically Castrated by Pain Doctors with NO Warning

If you’re a male pain patient and your physician has prescribed pain medications for you including Codeine, Fentanyl, Lora Tab, Norco, Vicodin, Dilaudid, Demerol, Morphine, Oxycodone, Oxycontin, or any other medication containing opioids, your physician has basically castrated you with no warning.

Symptoms low testosterone is reduced desire for sex, fewer erections, infertility, muscle loss, depression, low energy, and sleep disturbance.

Physical changes from Opioid-Induced Androgen Deficiency include increased body fat, decreased strength/mass of muscles, fragile bones, decreased body hair, swelling/tenderness in the breast tissue, hot flashes, night sweats, increased fatigue, and effects on cholesterol metabolism.
The Problems Pain Meds Cause…….

Imagine a 30 something male that gets injured at work. The patient goes to the ER and the problem is diagnosed as a herniated a disc and the patient is given opioid medications, and his primary care physician continues the pain medications.

Within a couple weeks he notices a loss of energy, but thinks it’s just the injury. His wife notices her husband no longer has any interest in making love to her.

The patient doesn’t notice the problem because for the guy it’s like when you were 8 years old, girls aren’t icky, you just have no interest in playing with them. As time goes on the wife and intimacy and making love gets worse. The wife begins to think her husband doesn’t love her any longer or he’s cheating on her. This isn’t good for the relationship and creates problems.

Example
A friend of ours was taking pain medications for a back injury. He’s a big biker guy about 6’2” 275 pounds. One day my wife was at their house and he came home early from work crying.

She asked what was wrong and he said, they called me a sniveling little bitch at work and sent me home because I was crying about my dog being sick.

My wife asked how his energy was, he said not very well. She asked about his sex life, he said what sex life. She explained that opioids deplete testosterone and to have his testosterone level checked. A few weeks later he felt better, and his wife understood he wasn't cheating on her.

If your pain management physician is not testing your testosterone levels please file a complaint with the Arizona Medical Board.

Any physician who treats pain should know this information, if not there's a problem.

This is a link to AZ Medical Board complaint page https://www.azmd.gov/Regulation/Regulation#

For more information please read my blog Pain Crisis in America……… http://paincrisisinamerica.blogspot.com

PLEASE READ These Articles
Article in the Pain Physician Journal on Opioid-Induced Hypogonadism: Why and How to Treat It
Article from Pain Physician Journal on Opioid-Induced Androgen Deficiency