Pain Medicine: Pain Relief Network Sues State of Washington Over Narcotic Prescribing Guidelines
The Pain Relief Network (PRN), a nonprofit organization waging a lonely battle to protect the rights of doctors who prescribe opioid pain relievers and patients who receive them, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington over prescribing guidelines promulgated in March 2007 by the state Department of Health.
The guidelines are designed to guide physicians through the minefields of narcotic prescribing in a time where they face a rising clamor for the relief of pain at the same time they face the threat of arrest and prosecution by federal or state agents intent on stopping narcotic drug abuse. But PRN alleges that Washington's guidelines deter doctors from prescribing opiates and have had an undue negative influence on prescribing practices across the country.
The guidelines, which only apply to the treatment of chronic pain -- not cancer pain, acute pain or hospice care -- recommend that daily opioid doses not exceed 120 milligrams of morphine or the equivalent if both pain and physical function are not improving. PRN argues that the guidelines are inflexible and fail to account for the needs of real patients.
According to the complaint filed late last month on behalf of a Washington state doctor and a group of Washington state pain patients, plaintiffs seek an injunction blocking the guidelines from being used. The complaint argues that the Washington guidelines violate both state laws and federal civil rights laws.
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Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 1:22pmAnonymous
Shame on you for comparing patients with legal perscriptions of opiates to street junkies.
Methadone is a wonderful medication for chronic pain. It has many advantages for long term chronic pain patients.
As far as addiction managment is concerned, methadone is highly regulated and considered the gold standard treatment for opiate addiction managment.
It is no party beinging a patient at a methadone clinic since most of the anonymous joes out there like you don't know anything about the treatment so they just keep up the same stigma you exhibit.
Shame on you.
KK
Prescribing Opiate Pain Relievers
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 2:56pmIt is not the DEA that has to go to school to learn how people tolerate a drug. A peak and trough test is usually the correct way of knowing what a persons body needs to fight off pain. I do not feel it is the DEA's job to do what a trained doctor is taught to do.
Granted there are probably a few crooked doctors just in it for the MONEY but most actually care about a persons pain and try their best to help the person in need. Each persons body has different tollerances and the DEA needs to learn this. Again I dont feel the DEA has the right to make the decision on how much of a drug a person needs. Let the test show the truth.
I have seen some people that do quite well on a low dose and some that do require alot more because each persons body absorbs differently. In my feelings I say the peak and trough test should be done because it shows the actual tollerances that ones body needs to combat the pain. It is not a guessing game as the DEA is doing it now. I say leave prescribing to trained proffesionals that have the means to actually know what a body needs to ward off pain.
Also it has been proven that IF medical cannabis was legal a person can cut their dose by quite a bit. Cannabis has not once killed ANYONE, unlike the narcotics have and do.
So I would have to go with a trained doctor and NOT a DEA person that is guessing. maybe one day that DEA person may need an opiate drug to fight off pain, would their feeling still be the same if it was their child or a loved one, would they choos to let them suffer when ther is a way to relieve the pain? I say they would not and would want proper treatment just as I do.
I can understand both sides to this story but I still feel its a doctors choice on what to give a person and not the DEA.
It was fine to medicate John Kennedy when he was our president with opiates, most people did not even know the man was that bad and took tons of medication just to function daily. Our government hides what it wants hid but sooner or later the truth will prevail.
Do old people in nursing homes know they are given Marinol to make them hungry? My guess is most dont even know what the pill is or what it is. If you asked them if they ever did cannabis they would most lkely say, "no, I never have when all along they are getting it daily, but yet the government claims there is NO medical use. That myth is being disproven each day with research. So I say if medical cannabis was made legal a doctor would not have to prescribe as much of a narcotic for their pain, I know this from first had experience.
Our laws need a drastic change,
Thank you for your time ,,,,,,Dave
helping doctors
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 10:20amcan,t we all sign our names to show we support the doctors people who need it are suffering because drs are afraid to give it because thr dea go to the drs offices and threaten the that if they prescribe it the they will go after the dr and my dr is a surgon and told me him self that he can give a little but i would have to suffer after so many pain meds are given or the dea will come and shut him down and he is a surgon that did a operation and feels bad because he know that the pain meds are needed hes the one who went to school for 7 yrs and done over 6000 surgurys we need to help doctors to protect our rights and his no person should be treat with creul and unusual punish ment lad
Prescribing Opiate Pain Relievers
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 10:44amWe don't have that problem in Iowa. With 2 methadone programs in Des Moines, a town of only 225,000 people, anyone who has even a mild addiction to pain pills can get on Methadone a much more addictive narcotic. I also know of to opiate addicts who take 110mgs of Methadone every day plus they get 225 Dilaudid a month, legally! While, in Iowa, Marijuana/ Medical Marijuana is considered as addictive as heroin yet it is outlawed, but you can become a legal opiate junkie. Where is the sense in this?!?! This is just another example of the "War On Drugs" working in reverse.