Medical Organizations Warn Of Widespread Addiction To Opioids
By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - I don't have a definitive scientific study on this subject but if anecdotal information from my day to day practice seeing patients has any reflection of reality, we have a growing number of people in this country who are using opioids and other narcotics to treat pain - and they are becoming addicted.
Some get them in the emergency room, some get them from their own physicians or even on the street.
The problem is made worse because some physicians facing time constraints may prescribe these medications to increase the volume of patients seen or maybe they are worried about patient surveys and know patients who get pain medications are happier consumers.
Now major professional organizations are warning of the problem.
The latest is the American Academy of Neurology which says that, since the 1990s when the opioid use policy changed allowing long term use for medications like Vicodin and oxycontin, more than 10,000 people have died and, according to the group, the risk of using these medications for headache, back pain and other forms of chronic pain are not worth the risk.
Fifty percent of patients taking opioids for three months are still on them five years later.