Doc! I Hurt!
Many doctors face the dilemma of walking a fine line treating their chronic pain patients, based on current rules and regulations towards the use of narcotics and synthetic narcotics. Many would like to do more but worry that their licences may be revoked by authorities for prescribing these drugs.
Unfortunately for many, the War on Drugs has had a serious backlash within the disability community, leaving us with lives that could be improved immensely by the use of this particular classification of drugs. The concerns of administrators of health systems don't seem to be listening to the medical professionals in this particular case. They are making unsubstantiated claims that it will contribute to many people becoming addicted to narcotics.
Many pain specialists working within this field of medicine have proven that this is not true. Research studies have proven that true chronic pain patients do not become physically addicted to their medication, but they may become emotionally or mentally addicted.
Many of you with chronic pain issues probably seek your doctor's assistance dealing with this particular medical problem. Some of you might meet with success depending on the rules and regulations of the area in which you live, others are not so successful for the same reasons. We, as patients, need to be more proactive with this problem. Many of our doctors would like to do more for us but feel with the current administrative climate that their hands are tied. They may or may not have shared this information with you when they denied your "pain relief" requests. What we as patients need to do is become more knowledgeable about our pain, more realistic as to what may relieve that pain, and help our doctors lobby for better rules when it comes to the medical treatment of chronic pain issues.
Doctors need our help! Health system administrators should not be able to override treatment goals & procedures of doctors and patients, but at present that is the system we have. Many doctors have been doing their share to enact changes within the system but they need our assistance. There are a few sites on the Net that you can explore this complicated issue:
North American Chronic Pain Association of Canada
I challenge you to educate yourself and help the doctors lobby for this worthy cause which affects our lives. Now is the time to learn all you can and write your political parties with knowledgeable and factual information stating clearly that doctors should be judging our need for these medicines, not administrators. Administrators are not our primary care givers!
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