OxyContin worries misplaced: pain experts
Posted by John Malloy on 09/03/2010
Ontario’s new strategy to restrict inappropriate use of opioid painkillers like OxyContin could discourage doctors from prescribing them when needed, leaving patients with chronic pain to suffer needlessly, pain experts say.
The province announced recently it will start tracking painkillers known as opioids — such as oxycodone, morphine and codeine — as well as stimulants and sedatives.
But doctors who specialize in controlling pain say while abuse is a problem, the undertreatment of pain by withholding opioids is worse.
When people are left in pain, the cost to society eclipses cancer and HIV in terms of lost hours, productivity and cost of care, said Dr. Norm Buckley, chair of the department of anesthesia at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
Anticonvulsants and antidepressants are effective pain control options, but Buckley said opioids such as morphine and OxyContin work best.
“Opioids are still far and away the most effective drugs we have for pain, and they should be used to a greater extent,” said Buckley, who is also director of the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre at McMaster.
“But at the same time you have outside observers looking at it and saying, ‘People are going crazy prescribing opioids. We have to do something about that!’”
Tracking opioid use as Ontario is proposing could provide useful information, Buckley acknowledged.
In Quebec, opioid use doubled over 14 years, said Kristen Reidel, a master’s student in epidemiology at Montreal’s McGill University.
via CBC News – Health – OxyContin worries misplaced: pain experts.
Posted by
John Malloy
on 09/03/2010. Filed under
Health.
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