Developing An Implementation Plan For Patients With Chronic Pain

With the mounting stress imposed by the conditions at work, “Jackie began to divert narcotics. Jackie was able to justify her actions because she perceived the drugs reduced her anxiety and stress, which enabled her to better care for her patients” (Badzek, et al., 1998). Initially, Jackie’s diversion of controlled drugs went unnoticed. But, ultimately her luck ran out, and Jackie’s actions were discovered.

The patient was admitted to the hospital by her daughter after discovering that she had abandoned her medication and was significantly experiencing adverse effects from the withdrawal. The patients’ medical history included renal dysfunction, anemia, malnourishment, back pain, and a family history of mental health. The patient has a psychiatric history of being previously placed in the same clinical structure eight months ago due to related issues including the failure to take her medication and increased levels of mental health conditions that led

First of all the author provides a well know resource The World Health Organization. This Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations who has been around for many years. It’s a well reliable facility which provides estimates of patients who obtain pain medication for chronic pain. The author also states that the drug is a stimulant that relieves severe pain and produces a highly addictive powerful feeling of well – being. (Berrettini, 2016)

Through my observations of the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I believe that my analysis could be beneficial to the realm of medicine. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) released a study that displayed, “health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.” Considering the mass amount of prescriptions being written nationwide, it is not surprising that one of the members in the NA meeting I attended was able to easily obtain painkillers from her doctor. The specific interaction I encountered during the Narcotics Anonymous meeting where the woman described that her addiction was being supported by the constant prescriptions written by her doctor

As we see the further progression of the opioid epidemic within the United States, pharmacists become the frontlines to recognizing and providing care for these patients. It is however difficult to provide care for a patient when even the professionals within the medical community have an associated stigma attached to the use of these drugs. Patients who have a need for these painkillers recognize this stigma, and by doing so decide to avoid consulting their doctors and do not seek the care which they need. They do this to avoid the discriminatory treatment they receive both within and on the outside of the healthcare system, and to avoid the legal repercussions associated with the misuse and abuse of these products1. It is therefore the pharmacists' job to avoid the stigmatization of these people and respect those who use these treatments for legitimate medical purposes.

Doctors and clinical prescribers have discovered their role in curtailing the increased opioid prescriptions in America. It is without a doubt that they play a role in facilitating the opioid misuse endemic in the past by being enablers of the situations. When patients ask for pain medications, they do not take time to analyze the pain complaints or suggest alternative medications other than opioids. Even in instances when one doctor declines to offer a patient an opioid prescription for their pain needs, the patient is likely to find another who will give the prescription. However, there has been wide recognition of the opioid misuse endemic such that clinical prescribers are practicing more vigilant prescribing and are advocating opioid-free

Opioid abuse, misuse and overdose is a problem in The United States. You can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without some mention of the epidemic. This issue has caused the practice of prescribing or taking narcotic pain medication to be looked at under a microscope. Patients are fearful to use some necessary pain medication, because they may become addicted. Other patients who genuinely do have pain and need medication are having a tougher time obtaining the help they need. The problem of abuse and addiction is tough to solve since for some people the medications are the only way they can function and live a semi-normal life. A patient with pain may be hesitant to visit the doctor and

According to the Department of Health and Human services, over 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed in one day. This translates to around 230 million prescriptions each year. This amount just barely falls short of being high enough to give every adult in the United States their own bottle of opioid pills. The loose prescribing habits of medical professionals are to blame for these absurdly high numbers. Current doctors will prescribe an opiate-based painkiller for anything from a backache, toothache, to even headaches. To give patients “highly addictive” drugs for low scale chronic pain over the three-days recommended max incurs high risk for tolerance, dependence, and potential addiction to opioids. Some would argue that doctors are simply doing their job by solving their patient’s pain problem and that people should not intrude upon a medical professional’s expertise. However, while doctors should be unbiased pillars of medical advice and treatment, they should also take into account the risks involved with their treatment for their patient’s sake. Particularly for opioid prescriptions, doctors should have to abide by dosing criteria, receive guidance on when to seek consultation, and know how to use their state’s prescription drug monitoring program (Alexander et al., 2015). According to Alexander et al., (2015) Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) are underutilized by 81% of all prescribers.

Thesis Statement: Opioid abuse is an ongoing issue with regards to pain management in physical therapy for patients, finding balance when prescribing narcotic medications is a role of both the patient and physician. APA Format Beattie, Paul F., Silfies, Sheri P., & Jordon, Max. (2016). The evolving role of physical therapists in the long-term management of chronic low back pain: longitudinal care using assisted self-management strategies. Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy, 20(6), 580-591. Epub June 30, 2016.https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/bjpt-rbf.2014.0180

Dr. Jick’s summary of the Boston University data on the number of patient addictions following treatment with narcotic pain killers affected the practice of writing prescriptions by excessively writing the prescriptions for the patients and not fully understanding all of the effects. This

Prior to 2000, nurses would routinely monitor a patient’s blood pressure, pulse, respirations and temperature: the four vital signs. After 2000, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations added pain as the fifth vital sign and nurses were required to evaluate a patient’s pain level using a numeric scale of 0 to 10 (Florida Office of the Attorney General, 2012). This led to a flood of opioid based pain relievers hitting the market and an increase in physicians writing prescriptions for these medications. Previously opioids had been used for treatment of cancer related pain, but broadened to include management of chronic non cancer pain (Edlund, et al., 2014). Research by Edlund

Concerning pharmacotherapy, physicians are reluctant to prescribe controlled medications because the DEA is more stringent. However, at CRH’s Mental Health Unit (MHU), many patients are still addicted to narcotics and stimulants. Some patients take pills to wake up, to be pain-free, and to sleep. Apparently, some doctors in the area are still prescribing these medications. They will treat obese patients with stimulants. Instead of taking the medication, patients will sell their pills to make money. Then, they come to MHU, and the hospitalist or psychiatrist will start the pharmacy-confirmed

pain was evaluated using qualitative interviews. The study identified clinical decision making processes by which primary care providers treat chronic pain and prescribe opioid medications to patients with an increased risk of possible abuse and misuse. The study was designed to identify decision making support tools for assisting providers with safer means for prescribing opioid medications.

The first being dependent patients who may be intentionally or inadvertently misusing their medications. Although this group may have genuine pain problems, some patients have become dependent as they rely on the drugs to improve how they feel or difficulties trying to cope with challenges in their life. Inadvertent dependence can arise from various reasons such as inappropriate prescribing, limited health literacy, poorly formed medication instructions or lack of communication by health care providers. The second group that abuses pharmaceutical drugs are those who use these medications for non-medical purposes. These individuals may be obtaining the medicines for self-treating purposes, personal recreational use or to trade on to others who abuse

This paper is going to talk about how to deal with chronic pain. First of all, this paper will explain what chronic pain means by providing the foremost chronic pain encountered in life such as low back, joints, or other kinds. Next, this paper will cover why it is important to address conditions related to chronic pain, and will explore methods and strategies showing how to cope with continuing pain. Finally, this paper will share some predictable outcomes and a conclusion.