3 ms·

I'll get shit from doctors on HN for saying this, but there are some chronic disease conditions that are so unimaginably painful that patients will go to any le

I'll get shit from doctors on HN for saying this, but there are some chronic disease conditions that are so unimaginably painful that patients will go to any lengths to ease the pain, including -- if they're unable to obtain legal drugs for pain -- buying drugs off the street. Older doctors are aware of this. But younger doctors have been taught recently at med school that opiates must only be used for acute, post-surgical pain. So an increasing number of chronic pain patients are being cut off from licit avenues, and turning to the far more dangerous street drugs.

IggleSniggle 8y ago
Opiates can also be a cause of pain. Physical pain and psychological pain are indistinguishable in the brain. Introducing a highly addictive drug may help with short term pain, but may also introduce a chronic pain condition. I think the response of younger doctors in regards to cutting down prescriptions to opiates has more to do with avoiding the moral and legal entanglements with prescribing something that will long term cause chronic pain than it does an unwillingness to prescribe. Western medicine has long been accused of being too focused on acute conditions. The pendulum is swinging in the other direction. There will continue to be doctors that find and understand balancing these risks to optimize a life, not just a body. There will also continue to be clinics that find and understand balancing malpractice insurance, not just patient throughput.