5 ms·
I'm not sure how one would go about addressing this problem. While it could be argued that Big Pharma pushed for psuedoaddiction more than necessary, that doesn
by samename 7y ago
I'm not sure how one would go about addressing this problem. While it could be argued that Big Pharma pushed for psuedoaddiction more than necessary, that doesn't necessarily discount what the patients were saying. From the article, it sounds like a doctor with experience with the patient could distinguish between addiction and psuedoacction well, but the doctor also wants to avoid bureaucratic oversight and risk causing harm to their patient.
- kelnos 7y agoThe question I have (as a complete lay-person) is: can't we develop effective painkillers (and other useful drugs) that aren't addictive at all? Is there something inherent about the types of things these treat that makes it really hard to avoid using addictive substances?
- taneq 7y agoAnd a follow-up question: Would it help? Many of the examples given were for non-addictive drugs, the deciding factor seems purely to be whether you’re adamant that you need the drug. Especially awful are the examples involving diabetics being denied insulin.
- zamadatix 7y agoBoth need to be solved but the problem spaces of "the doctor wants to you to come for an appointment the next day" and "the doctor thinks you're addicted so won't prescribe you anything" are completely unrelated and I don't really see how the former ended up in this article. Solving pain relief without being labeled an addict certainly shows value even if you have to inconveniently schedule an appointment to be prescribed.