Pain Meds and the War on Drugs/Overprescribing

We have almost no chronic health conditions where we can glance at medical maintenance and ask when there is going to be an end to these drugs. Patients with diabetes aren’t asked if they plan to stop taking insulin.

Alicia Agnoli, a University of California, Davis researcher, studied the consequences of the dogma of opioid denial, a way of attempting to control overdose and death by limiting prescriptions, and focused on the impacts on pain patients whose treatment had been cut off, often by force. Whelan, an investigative reporter for The Inquirer, has previously documented how pain patients have been impacted. Philadelphia Injury lawyers take a look at the pain meds and war on drugs/overprescribing and how, in the event of suffering from overprescription, the best option is to seek the help of a medical malpractice lawyer in Philadelphia.

The alarming number of overdose deaths has been a testament to the complete failure of policies that sought to reduce opiate availability and prescriptions. Data collected by the government, such as CDC and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, demonstrate no association between the number of opioid prescriptions written for adults over the age of 12 and nonmedical use or addiction.

Despite the decline in opioid prescriptions, no reduction in opioid overdose deaths has been documented, but when opioids, in general, are examined, the opposite is the case. People struggling with addiction have turned to heroin and fentanyl, while prescription medicines are becoming harder to get. It is anticipated that drug overdose deaths will increase by 30,000 percent in 2020. And then what? (Cocaine is responsible for this problem.)

It has been concluded that illicit fentanyl is behind the spike in mortality and not prescription medications. Regardless of if that is true, it’s still not a significant component of the opioid narrative. It is where the vital influence of Agnoli and Whelan’s research may be seen. When the doses of prescription drugs are reduced, patients’ mental health crises and overdoses rise.

A secondary finding bears out what healthcare providers have seen for years: reducing or discontinuing opioid treatment is connected to a significant rise in overdose deaths, two-thirds of which are associated with depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts (up 430 percent ).

Preventive Measures:

Learning from past drug catastrophes and utilizing a systematic approach can guide legislators as they seek to end the current epidemic of opiate abuse in our society today.

Recommendations consist of:

Opioid Overprescription Must be Eliminated:

• To combat the opioid crisis, physicians in the United States must stop prescribing opioids at a traditionally unprecedented and globally anomalous rate in order to combat overprescription.
• To ensure sufficient consideration of risks and proper dosage, physicians’ prescribing practices should be aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines
• Change health insurance guidelines to increase access to medicines with lower addiction and dependence risks and non-drug treatment options.
• Use drug monitoring programs more effectively to identify troublesome prescribing practices among doctors and help patients who need treatment for opioid use disorder.
• Restrict wholesalers from selling illegal substances.

Treatment for drug use disorders should be more widely available:

• Policymakers must close the medication gap for both the general and the incarcerated populations and invest in beneficial forms of treatment for both.
• Increase healthcare insurance to obtain healthcare and mental health treatment that aid in preventing and treating opioid use disorder. There were two main reasons in 2015 why people who wanted substance abuse treatment did not receive it: insufficient health insurance and the cost of treatment.
• The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act should be better enforced to raise health insurance coverage of cures for substance use disorders. More people would have access to the most effective treatment for opioid use disorder if constraints to receiving medication-assisted treatment were lowered, as defined by the American Medical Association.
• Prioritize drug treatment in the community rather than in the judicial system while making sure that those who are introduced into the system obtain effective treatment. There should be an increase in access to medication-assisted treatment, particularly methadone or buprenorphine, by the federal Bureau of Prisons, county jails, and local jails.

Cut Down on Overdoses:

However, it is equally important to reduce the harm done by opiate use disorders.

• To prevent overdose deaths, increase access to naloxone and training in its administration.
• Monitored consumption sites and syringe service programs should be implemented to reduce the transmission of contagious diseases and overdose deaths among opioid users.
• Educate those who are using opioids about the dangers of mixing drugs with other substances;

Stop the Drug War:

• People with drug convictions are subjected to collateral consequences, which policymakers should eliminate in addition to criminal justice professionals.
• Reduce drug possession and sales incarceration by a significant amount, given that incarcerating drug users and suppliers, is not an effective treatment method for substance use disorders.
• Make sure that people who have felony drug convictions are not barred from receiving government benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and federal student aid to tackle the harms caused by the more coercive response to past drug crises and by continued enforcement.

An Attorney for Medical Malpractice:

Doctors and lawyers both have similar goals. According to the ethics codes for each profession, the patient’s and client’s best interests are of the utmost importance. When a physician’s negligence results in injury, the purpose of seeking medical treatment is not achieved, and a patient must seek an attorney’s or a law firm’s help.

There must be “negligence” by the treating physician or surgeon in similar circumstances. As a result of this area of law, an individual is compensated for harm caused by another. While the modern medical negligence system appears to be riddled with injustice, this perception negatively impacts physicians’ views of their patients and the care they provide to them.

Overprescribed drug patients’ ability to obtain significant jury awards is often cited as to why medical malpractice raises insurance rates and reduces access to care. Others dispute this claim, pointing to various factors as the root cause of the medical crisis. In the event of having suffered from overdose or medical negligence, the best course of action is to seek legal help from the medical malpractice lawyer in Philadelphia. You can get in touch for a free consultation.