Hey folks, I agree with most of what has been said. The drug companies push new "improved", drugs, which subsequently were under patent for 10 years, (which for those that may not know, means that the drug cannot be copied and/or sold generically). The doctors then prescribe them to their patients (often with little discussion as to the side effects, including potential addiction! Then with all of the deaths going on throughout North America, including cities & towns that often had never been heard of before! This prompted MEDIA attention to the issue..which included the addition of doctors either now denying drugs that they had previously prescribed to their patients (with most offering no support in terms of transition etc.) which left many of them seeking anything (more often than not it is heroin, as it is widely available and cheap) they could get their hands onto stave off of the withdrawl effects. Other more seedy doctors opened up pill pushing offices, which as you can guess, prescribed large amounts of the pills which had them making money not only from the pills themselves but also in billing the insurance companies for the "appointments".
So to deduce the the above, you were either pulled off your pain medicine because your doctors were afraid to leave you on any of the types of pain medication, which they clearly did not know enough about! You do the illegal thing & may choose heroin as your substitute to rid yourself of pain. Or as a yet another alternative to this ( some may misinterpret the often deadly result of the illegal drugs or the misuse of legal drugs) What I am talking about is suicide. In Canada this prompted a group of experts in relation to pain (scientists, pain doctors, etc.) to get together & discuss this topic. It was ultimately decided that the regular every day GP (General Physician or in some cases Practitioner) needed to be better educated in the area of "PAIN". That with some proper guidance they would feel more comfortable in prescribing it to their patients rather than just denying it all together!
The group & is known as the National OPIOD use Guideline Group or "NOUGG" (for the safe & effective use of OPIODS for Chronic Non-Cancer Patients (CNCP).
The problem as someone previously mentioned, was the Government's MISuse of the Guidelines that NOUGG had written in order to provide a practical resource to doctors; with the best available information, research & consensus of opinion on this topic. The Guideline was/is NOT intended to be used as a Policy or Standard of Practice, but as a practical resource to provide physicians with the best available information, research & consensus of opinion on this topic.
My experience recently has shown that the insurance companies are also using the Guideline as their Policy as they reviewed my list of medications using the Guideline and DENIED me my meds based on this!!! It was only after escalating my case and telling them that I have no other options other than these medications to help control my pain. Denial of them would lead me to my final option ,,,,,,Suicide. They asked me for my records from the onset of my CRPS 8 years ago to ensure that I indeed had exhausted all other options for treatment of my CRPS.
In waiting for my records I offered up another option... the use of a pain pump which would not only be more effective, it would also use less medication due to this. However, they,( as too ) had my GP and previous pain doctor denied me as they ALL gave me the same response...."That is used for cancer patients only". None of them could give me a response as to WHY??? Do I really have to be dying in order for you to care about how much pain I am in??
It's kind of ironic in a way, since denial of or perhaps in the near future the ineffectiveness of my pain meds will most likely lead me to suicide as a result. But then it will be too late for the pain pump!!!
I thought we were in the age of progress and technology, however it seems that when it comes to the area of chronic pain & its meds both the Guidelines as well as, the use of pain pumps for use in cancer patients only is CARVED in STONE!!!!