Monthly Archives: March 2019

Prescription Drugs Aren’t to Blame for Rise in Addiction Deaths – Bloomberg – By Ramesh Ponnuru – Mar2019

I’m thrilled to see the true fact about the opioid issue prominent in the headline of a mainstream media publication – especially one directed at financial professionals.

“Patients in pain have become collateral damage in the war on opioids.”

Seeing this fact, which is so often voiced by pain patients, simply stated in this article gives me hope that the public will start to realize that opioids are sometimes very needed and not some sort of “evil” substance that “causes addiction”. 

How a Paraplegic Drug User Became a Victim of Involuntary Commitment– by Christopher Moraff – Feb 2019

New laws make it easy for anyone accused of having an addiction problem to be committed if they don’t agree to whatever treatment is recommended for them.

Involuntary commitment for people accused of having an addiction and not actively participating in treatment for it is becoming more common as more laws are being passed to make this legal.

Barely a day passes on my beat without my meeting someone with a harrowing story about the impact of zero-tolerance drug policies on their lives. But few of these stories have impacted me personally as much as that of a young man I’ll call “Jay.”

I edited the title because it’s been pointed out that “dependence” isn’t the right word. I knew this but was paraphrasing the article title, which uses that word instead of addiction, even though they are clearly talking about opioid misuse. We can thank the DSM-5 for this confusion.

Development of dependence following treatment with opioid analgesics for pain relief: a systematic view – June 2012

Aims: To assess the incidence or prevalence of opioid dependence syndrome in adults (with and without previous history of substance abuse) following treatment with opioid analgesics for pain relief.

Spoiler alert from the happy conclusion:

The available evidence suggests that opioid analgesics for chronic pain conditions are not associated with a major risk for developing dependence.   

Opioid Use, Misuse, and Suicidal Behaviors in a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Adults. – PubMed – NCBI – just the abstract available – Mar 2019

This study proves that simply using opioids to treat a medical condition does not lead to increases in suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Prior research has shown associations between opioid misuse and suicidal behaviors, but the relationship between medical opioid use and suicidal behaviors is not known.

We assessed associations between opioid use and misuse to suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and suicide attempts among adults 18-64 years old (n=86,186) using nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.  

Cohort Study of the Impact of High-Dose Opioid Analgesics on Overdose Mortality | Pain Medicine | Oxford Academic – January 2016

Objective.

Previous studies examining opioid dose and overdose risk provide limited granularity by milligram strength and instead rely on thresholds.

We quantify dose-dependent overdose.

Spoiler: there is no linear or incremental increase in overdose risk by dosage.  The 90MME limit proposed by the CDC Guideline isn’t based on science, but more like a consensus “best guess” by addiction doctors.