When States Turn Overly Strict on Pain Medication Prescriptions

We also know from the same studyTheramine Review that even though the cost of pain management in the United States is well over $530 billion per year, the amount spent on research studies is between $200 and $300 million, which is less than 1/10 the amount of the cost of the problem. So it is obvious that more research needs to be performed to help find new ways of managing pain in the United States.

Unfortunately one of the things that is being seen in numerous states now are onerously strict new pain management rules that are leaving patients without care at all. Unfortunately one of the stereotypes that gets thrown to pain management patients is that they are all drug seekers. In fact we know this is simply not the case, as there are certain patients who have conditions that are not amenable to either surgery or interventional pain management procedures any more.

Once a pain management doctor or a primary care doctor is duped by a few patients, it becomes very difficult and also very disappointing for that doctor to continue to prescribe pain medications not being able to delineate between real pain patients and fakers. So what may occur is that as states turn to more restrictive policies on prescribing pain medication, that physician may turn around and say "I'm just not going to prescribe any narcotics at all anymore".

In most states back in the 1980s, pain medications were under prescribed and patients were being undertreated. As a result of this there was a push to start treating pain appropriately, and this turned into a period of lax opiate prescribing which then caused a spike in overdoses. With the new statistics that are out for pain medication prescriptions showing a 100% increase over last five years across the country, a lot of states like Washington are now passing laws making it very difficult to effectively prescribe medications to patients in need.



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