Narcotics Don’t Help
It’s true. No study has established that narcotics help in reducing chronic pain. Narcotics may be helpful in dealing with acute pain that is temporary and goes away after a few days or weeks. Examples of acute pain are pain following surgery, an accident, or appendicitis pain. Narcotics are wonderful medicines for these types of pains where the pain is not going to stick around for long. A pain that persists for more than three months is classified as chronic pain and narcotics don’t work well with chronic of pain. It may be helpful in managing some forms of chronic pain, but in cases of spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury pain, spinal disk disease related pain, persistent pain after back surgery, fibromyalgia, diabetic neuropathy, and other metabolic nerve damage narcotics do not work.
A physician who treats all pain as a narcotic deficiency is like a homeowner who treats cracks in his walls with wallpaper, instead of figuring out what is causing the cracking.
Who is a Candidate for Narcotics Medications?
Despite the fact that narcotics are only helpful in relieving short term pain doctors prescribe them to patients who suffer from chronic pain. Normally doctors ascertain if the patient is responding to other forms of treatment.
Acupressure, acupuncture, and natural therapies can be helpful in alleviating pain. But if you have tried and exhausted all other available pain relieving alternatives he may be considered for narcotic drugs. Before actually prescribing the drugs the doctor would determine if the patient has any medical history of problems that may get worse because of the effects of consuming the drugs. Narcotic drugs will not be given to a patient if there is a history of drug dependence. Oxycodone, Percocet, Oxycontin, Roxicodone, Lortab, Norco, Fentanyl, Actiq, MS Contin, MS Immediate Release, Morphine, Dilaudid, Demerol and Methadone are some of the narcotic drugs that doctors typically prescribe for pain relief.
How Narcotics Work
Narcotics do not actually wipe out acute pain. They only block the pain receptors in the brain and spinal cord. The brain doesn’t get the message that there is pain though the problem will be very much present. For cases of acute pain this works fine. But in case of chronic pain the pain persists and new receptors keep sending the message to the brain reducing the ability of drug to block preceptors. The patient on narcotic drug medication therefore experiences no ease in pain unless the dosage in increased. The increasing dosages fail to work over time and the patient gets helpless without the drug. Thus a vicious circle is created where both the doctor keeps prescribing higher dosage of narcotic drugs and the patient increasingly gets dependent on them. In medical parlance this is called as “tolerance”.
Consequences of Becoming Dependent
There are also some common complaints that patients have with regard to the use of narcotics continuously including: nausea, severe constipation, drowsiness, dizziness, vomiting, weakness, dry mouth, confusion, impotence, and loss of interest in sex. Hallucination and nightmares are also common with many narcotic drugs. It is a belief that narcotic drugs work when it is present in the body 24×7 as long as the pain is there. This can turn the patient into a different person as long as the drugs are being used. On other hand, when the patients don’t have the pain medications they are likely to go through the withdrawal symptoms. The withdrawal symptoms could be horrible. Withdrawal won’t kill you. It’ll just make you wish you were dead. Your physician can prescribe clonidine (an antihypertensive drug) by mouth to prevent or reduce the withdrawal symptoms. It really does work pretty well. It’s better not to be dependent on narcotic drugs.
There is also another condition that can arise due to over dependence on narcotic drugs used for pain relief. It is known as hyperalgesia. This is a condition where the patient perceives greatly increased. The body’s pain receptors ramp up the pain felt.
Leading to Addiction
Narcotic drugs give relief only for small period of time in chronic pain cases. This prompts the patient to yearn for using the medicine with greater frequency or higher doses leading to tolerance and dependence. Tolerance and dependence have every chance of leading to addiction. There is a very thin line that separates dependence and addiction. And within a very short period the lines can get blurred. Chronic pain sufferers would increasingly get addicted to the morphine drugs that their doctors prescribed. Some patients would misuse their prescription for narcotics drugs for making quick money through selling the drugs. This had opened a national debate and the government had to pass a law so as to not make the doctor’s office a street for drug peddling.
The law is aimed at curbing patients selling pain killing drugs illegally. Anyone doing so would be violating a Federal Law. Even the doctors have to be careful while prescribing the drugs. Otherwise they also will get dragged into trouble and the law is unforgiving when it comes to dealing with drugs.
The question of misusing the drugs is also not something that can be taken likely. A patient may take the narcotic drug when feeling anxious or to get better sleep. This would interfere with the normal dosage prescribed by the doctor and may jeopardize the health of the patient.
The Predicament of Physicians and Patients
The American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society have issued a joint statement that narcotic drugs do not work for chronic pain relief. Yet the good physician has to do something to provide relief. The Drug Enforcement Administration can be downright nasty dealing with patients and physicians at times. They have targeted pain specialists who only prescribe drugs for pain.
In truth doctors would like to offer something substantial and relieve the patient of the pain and the patients would like to bid good bye to pain. But is there a choice?
Yes! Get thee to an interventional pain specialist. This physician has a lot more knowledge and skill in diagnosing and treating pain without using drugs. The procedures can eliminate pain, not just cover it.
