The number if people safely taking opiates, ranging from simple Tylenol #4 and up is pretty staggering, and that bothers insurance companies who are being forced to pay these prescriptions… moreso since the AFA forced everyone onto insurance plans… and even moreso that over 50% of the country is now poor and on government assisted healthcare. Very misleading article, and as a physician, you again are promoting false information with insufficient efficacy studies on long term use of narcotics. They in fact are, and the cause of the CDC declared epidemic. Our country is loosing 1 life every 19 minutes due to your previously boisterous education of the physician community that “opioids” are not addictive. So, to blame the DEA for aligning with your now “new” platform of chronic pain treatment, is extremely short sighted and inaccurate. This is in fact exactly what your are now publishing within the VA system. Up scheduling hydrocodone in fact, MAKES physicians be engaged in their patients “pain” complaints and multidiscipline treatment modalities with opioids as a LAST resort. What we have in our country is >100 million narcotic dependents due to the false marketing of Purdue Pharma, and uneducated “pain management physicians”. When we work against the people we are set up to serve, we are doing a great disservice to our cause and the people who rely on us most.ĭr Webster – new studies show that long term opioids DO NOT work for most patients, and the conversations surrounding the up scheduling of hydrocodone (Vicodin, Percocet, etc) began long before the now pandemic of chronic pain patients in our country. The medical system’s purpose is to treat and work for the betterment of patients. Solving the problem begins with communication among the medical community, to ensure patients have access to their necessary medicine and the ability to live the life they deserve. When patients who suffer from these excruciating conditions are denied access to medication, they often turn to alternative forms of relief such as black market drugs, creating a larger issue of abuse.

27 percent of patients even reported suicidal thoughts when unable to access their prescription.Ĭontrolling the abuse and overuse of pain killing drugs is necessary to keep patients safe, but the importance of decreasing drug abuse does not outweigh the needs of millions of people who suffer from chronic and depleting pain.

52 percent felt an increase sense of stigma as a patient receiving hydrocodone.

71 percent report being switched to less effective medications by their doctors, who are fearful of legal issues.

88 percent of patients felt that the changes denied their rights to access pain medication.

In attempting to decode how other patients have been affected by the DEA rule change, the National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association (NFMCPA) released a survey of assessing the first 100 days after the regulatory change. What’s worse, she told me that now, more than ever, she has been made to feel like a criminal for seeking access to medicine that has been rightfully prescribed to her by her own doctor. For her, it’s a 4 hour round trip every 90-days to access the medication that has helped revive a semblance normalcy since her pain first surfaced when she was just 20 years old.

She lives two hours away from the doctor who currently helps manage her pain.

I spoke with a former patient of mine to find out how she was affected by the up-schedule of hydrocodone.

Pain advocates across the country were vocal when the DEA announced these changes: they would have unintended consequences that would hurt, rather than help, legitimate pain patients in need. Many who rely on hydrocodone suffer from debilitating chronic pain, which greatly disrupts and decreases their quality of life. Hydrocodone is one of the most widely used drugs to fight chronic pain in the United States, serving a consumer base of about 100 million people.

Hydrocodone good for imuscle aches