If their pain isn’t being managed, of course, chronic pain patients will not ask for the dosage to be lowered. They also don’t know how to lower their dosage on their own. Withdrawal is a given if the person has been on high dosages.
Again. Dependence and addiction are not the same thing. Just because you experience withdrawal does not mean you are addicted. The urge to pursue a high or elation from a drug is different than pursuing quality of life.
I’ve never experienced a high or rush from the high but then I’m not on a full therapeutic dose of opioids with my pain relief only at 40%. Without them though, I would be bedridden as I was when they reduced my dose.
The problem is that the doctors pharmacists are protecting not only their practices and livelihoods and therefore their families.