Doctors over-prescribing pain medications has become a major source of prescription drug addiction and dependency. Family doctors do it, pain management clinics do it, and doctors who just want to make a little extra money do it. And more and more people are showing up in drug detox programs trying to handle their addictions to prescription drugs, especially opiate painkillers.
A new study conducted by the Federation of State Medical Boards and the Wisconsin Pain and Policy Studies Group concluded that doctors’ “understanding of pain management issues, especially regarding addiction and the legality of prolonged opioid prescription, has improved over the years.” Now there’s a move to use the information in this study to ‘discuss’ the possibility of “unwarranted criminal prosecutions” for over-prescribing.
I’ve read many, many articles about doctors who have been prosecuted for over-prescribing prescription painkillers and I don’t think I’ve seen one story yet that sounds like the doctor is innocent of the charge. While a doctor may be accused of wrong doing by a patient, it takes a lot more than one patient complaint to lead to prosecution. Often there have been numerous complaints, and sometimes their patients have died. Why didn’t the docs get them into drug detox when things got out of hand?
Doctors may feel compelled to ease pain, but their first obligation is to do no harm. It’s understandable that there are times that prescription painkillers are medically necessary but, if that’s the route a doctor’s going to take, he should also be prepared to take full responsibility for getting the patient off the drugs through a drug detox program.