The U.S. Surgeon General weighs in on the Opioid mess saying doctors need to change their prescribing habits now.

The U.S. Surgeon General weighs in on the Opioid mess saying doctors need to change their prescribing habits now.

Vicodin and Oxycontin are two of the most cited opioid drugs that are addicting American’s by the thousands.

High profile people have either died or become addicted and required rehab, because they took their doctors advice about pain meds, or got them on their own from some other source.

The problem is so real that just recently, the U.S. Surgeon General sent out a letter strongly advising his colleagues that they need to change their prescribing habits.

Is the problem prescribing habits, or that doctors have such a poor understanding of pain and its mechanisms, that the only way they know how to quell the suffering is through dangerous substances that give temporary relief, while causing addiction in their unsuspecting patients.

The chiropractic profession has for quite some time been saying that perhaps, doctors need to put down their pens and use those who are better trained to evaluate and treat many of the patients who have chronic pain.  More medication or different substances are not the answer, and in the U.S. we take more drugs than in other country in the western civilized world, yet, we have the highest costs and we are way down on the list from the WHO for the best health system.

There is a cure, and rather than teaching doctors to prescribe other medicines for pain relief, often a wrongheaded approach when they do not know why the person is in pain, they need to learn more about doctors of chiropractic and other types of providers who can offer effective relief methods. Insurance companies must lower deductibles and co payments to help people afford the multiple visits that are usually required to treat or rehab a problem effectively, since they are a huge part of todays problem as well.

Massachusetts took an even stronger stance with hard protocols for what you can and cannot write in a prescription for pain, but it still does not address the problem of most pain being the symptom, rather than the problem, unless you are referring to perhaps a post surgical situation.

Many people have become addicted by only taking some of these drugs for a short period of time, and then realizing that their pain was worsening from the addiction as they developed a craving for it.

Recently, CNN reported about the problem and the surgeon generals letter.  You can read about it here

US surgeon general sends warning letter to all doctors on opioid epidemic
By Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent

In the next few days, every doctor in the United States will be receiving this letter from the US surgeon general.

It’s the first time that America’s top doctor has reached out to all physicians.
But Dr. Vivek Murthy has an urgent reason: Americans are dying each year by the tens of thousands from overdoses of prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin.

“I am asking for your help to solve an urgent health crisis facing America: the opioid epidemic,” Murthy wrote.

In his letter, which also appears on turnthetiderx.org, Murthy told physicians he understood their desire to keep their patients out of pain.

“It is important to recognize that we arrived at this place on a path paved with good intentions,” he wrote.
But those good intentions have gone horribly wrong.

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