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> Many people are inappropriately given opiates by their doctors to treat long term pain. While I am sure this is true in many cases, my personal experience wa

> Many people are inappropriately given opiates by their doctors to treat long term pain. While I am sure this is true in many cases, my personal experience was the opposite. I had significant nerve pain after an accident, which kept me from being able to sleep or focus on anything very well. The physician I saw after my hospitalization was apparently worried I was trying to satisfy a drug-craving? So instead of giving me a pain-killer gave me a prescription for an anti-depressant (which potentially treats nerve pain at 4X the normal dose used to treat depression) - withdrawal from that was extremely bad and certainly much worse than anything I've experienced after pain-killers.

DanBC 10y ago
> I had significant nerve pain after an accident, which kept me from being able to sleep or focus on anything very well. Was that in the weeks or months after the accident? Or was it some time after that? Pain after accidents is short term (acute) pain, and I'm only talking about long term (chronic) pain. EDIT: Either way, it sucks that you didn't get good enough treatment, and I'm sorry you went through that. Pain freaking sucks, and being looked at as a drug seeker doesn't make it any easier.
- forgotpwtomain 10y ago
  > Was that in the weeks or months after the accident? Or was it some time after that? > Pain after accidents is short term (acute) pain, and I'm only talking about long term (chronic) pain. It was a month after I was discharged (so two months after the accident). Probably given the sentiment here and on other media I could have shopped around for a different physician - but when you are recovering from an accident that really isn't an initial concern and one is inclined to trust medical decisions of professionals - my overall takeaway is that this anti-prescription drug-abuse wave that ran through the media/public and it's impact on healthcare had a distinctly negative effect at least on my personal treatment. Sure, it's anecdotal but I really would be curious to know what percentage of doctors are contributing to prescription drug abuse vs. the weight of the contribution; somehow I think it's more likely that a very small percentage account for the bulk of the abused prescriptions.
GordonS 10y ago
A lot of research has shown SNRI and SSRI antidepressants are actually great for nerve pain, e.g. gapapentin, pregabalin, duloxetine. They didn't work for me personally, opioids did, but prescribing such antidepressant type medications first seems a reasonable course of action
- velox_io 10y ago
  I take Amitriptyline at night (in addition to opioid patches and antiinflammatories). While I find it does have some analgesic properties; the real benefit is actually a side effect, the drowsiness means I actually get some sleep.
- forgotpwtomain 10y ago
  > A lot of research has shown SNRI and SSRI antidepressants are actually great for nerve pain, e.g. gapapentin, pregabalin, duloxetine. I'm well aware of this. If you read some more research the dosage prescribed for nerve pain is as I mentioned ~4xish of anti-deppresant dosage. More so I recommend you look into some research on withdrawal effects of antidepressants (of course there is less of it since drug companies have a vested interest in the actual lack of such research).

DanBC 10y ago

> I had significant nerve pain after an accident, which kept me from being able to sleep or focus on anything very well. Was that in the weeks or months after the accident? Or was it some time after that? Pain after accidents is short term (acute) pain, and I'm only talking about long term (chronic) pain. EDIT: Either way, it sucks that you didn't get good enough treatment, and I'm sorry you went through that. Pain freaking sucks, and being looked at as a drug seeker doesn't make it any easier.

forgotpwtomain 10y ago
> Was that in the weeks or months after the accident? Or was it some time after that? > Pain after accidents is short term (acute) pain, and I'm only talking about long term (chronic) pain. It was a month after I was discharged (so two months after the accident). Probably given the sentiment here and on other media I could have shopped around for a different physician - but when you are recovering from an accident that really isn't an initial concern and one is inclined to trust medical decisions of professionals - my overall takeaway is that this anti-prescription drug-abuse wave that ran through the media/public and it's impact on healthcare had a distinctly negative effect at least on my personal treatment. Sure, it's anecdotal but I really would be curious to know what percentage of doctors are contributing to prescription drug abuse vs. the weight of the contribution; somehow I think it's more likely that a very small percentage account for the bulk of the abused prescriptions.

GordonS 10y ago

A lot of research has shown SNRI and SSRI antidepressants are actually great for nerve pain, e.g. gapapentin, pregabalin, duloxetine. They didn't work for me personally, opioids did, but prescribing such antidepressant type medications first seems a reasonable course of action

velox_io 10y ago
I take Amitriptyline at night (in addition to opioid patches and antiinflammatories). While I find it does have some analgesic properties; the real benefit is actually a side effect, the drowsiness means I actually get some sleep.
forgotpwtomain 10y ago
> A lot of research has shown SNRI and SSRI antidepressants are actually great for nerve pain, e.g. gapapentin, pregabalin, duloxetine. I'm well aware of this. If you read some more research the dosage prescribed for nerve pain is as I mentioned ~4xish of anti-deppresant dosage. More so I recommend you look into some research on withdrawal effects of antidepressants (of course there is less of it since drug companies have a vested interest in the actual lack of such research).