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To all Forum Participants
by Philip1815, May 24, 2000 12:00AM
Dear Forum Participants:
Please understand that this Forum was not created to replace urgent medical care. We are here to help with questions you may have concerning a specific condition or problem.
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Med Help International
Please understand that this Forum was not created to replace urgent medical care. We are here to help with questions you may have concerning a specific condition or problem.
Please do not let this Forum become a place to argue with others. We all understand it can be frustrating to wait to get answers, however, as this is a free service, sometimes the physicians have other priorities.
We *DO* however, periodically monitor postings and we REMOVE those postings that are not constructive and are offensive. For those that abuse this forum which is a free service, we will remove your posting and subsequent abuse will lead to your being banned from all future posting.
Regards,
Med Help International
Yes, I also thank you Medhelp and all Doctors taking their time to answer questions on this forum, many questions of which are difficult to answer over the internet and questions that are not clear and concise.
This forum is a great public service. Thank you again Medhelp for bringing it to us.
any of the other forms and yes addiction and chronic pain are two totally different forums. Article by Gorbback. The majority of people who take narcotics for pain do not become addicts. Although tolerance the requirement for bigger doses and dependence the development of withdrawal symptoms after sudden discontinuation are associated with addiction, they do not represent true addiction by themselves. Addiction is a condition in which people make obtaining and using the drug the centerpiece of their existence. The use of the drug is an end in itself. Drug addicts withdraw and become less functional when they take drugs. In contrast, chronic pain patients become more functional when they take their drugs, and are able to join in basic social activities frequently denied them by their pain. It is well established that chronic pain sufferers develop tolerance and dependence while on narcotics, but these are expected side effects--not signs of addiction--and are not considered indications for discontinuing the drug. Tragically, tolerance and dependence are often mistaken for addiction, and the drugs are abruptly stopped. It is well known that pain patients sometimes take their own lives when their medications are discontinued. I have come to call this "Algocide"--suicide driven by pain. Better understanding of true addiction as opposed to the commonplace occurrence of tolerance and dependence, would help alleviate the daily suffering of millions of people and prevent many deaths per year because of Algocide. This article was written by a doctor in Houston TX and was given permission to repeat this article. His name is Dr. Michael S. Gorback.
John
since 1995 i had sufferred from chronic pain relating to tension type headaches. they were tested and no organic problem existed but i was told they were of a purely physiological nature. however this to me was of little assistance as all i knew was that i was experiencing the most intense pain and could not fucnction in day to day society.
there are two stories here but i will stick to the one regarding my narcotic use and subsequent addiction over a five year period.
in 1995 my g.p started me on codeine over the five year period i went from 2 a day of 30mg doses to about 12 tablets a day. on top of this after the codeine lost its effect as tolerance built up rapidly within my system was introduced dextropropoxyphene and doloxene my use went the same way as the codeine first 2 tabs then upto as many as 12 a day to sustain myself.
however over a period of time my tolerance to these mild forms of narcotica grew so my g.p introduced pethedine about 2 shots a week at first both of 100 milligrams, but i had very adverse reactions so my g.p turned to morphine. fisrt i was on three shots a week of about 60-100 milligrams of morphine then my g.p introduced me to ms-contin which here in australia is a slow released form of morphine sulphate. i began on 30mg tabs but went as high as 100mg to sustain my every day ability to function normally.
how did i know if i was still sufferring from the pain? as each day, day in day out i would take what i thought to be the magic potion to alleviate my pain which i must acknowledge it did do but also brought about certain states of what i call 'my highs'.
my first experience of drug withdrawal occurred when i spent 7 months overseas going only with a certain amount of ms-contin, doloxene and codeine, when it all dried up i experienced the most painful moments of my life. the chills convulsions sweating like a pig crying like a baby and aches and pains in my muscles plus the inability to sleep.
however the stragest thing to this day was that nobody ever spoke to me of withdrawal so at the time of this i thought it was jet-lag having flown from germany to ny and thought it was to do with this silly me.
anyway arriving back in australia slightly 'clean' once again commenced my narcotic use, it was back to morphine shots about twice a week and loads od codeine and doloxene.
see my g.p new that to send me to any specialist meant they would immediately dis-continue my narcotics as here in australia unless you have either organic problems medically like a tumour or a genuine 'medical' condition, no specialist eg a neurologist will prescribe narcotics for fear of addiction.
anyway to continue the story my g.p could no longer supply me the m.s-contin as the government had written to him banning me from it stating if i was to continue its use then i would have to be identified as a 'drug addict' but more importantly would have to go to a neurologist to get special prescriptions and permission to use the m.s-contin.
however about this time a new drug came on the market here in australia called oxy-contin, a slow releasing form of oxycodone hydrochloride another synthetic opiod. i had used oxycodone in its normal fast release version but the pain returned very quickley after say two hours.
firstly my g.p started me on 20milligrams a day of the oxy-contin but gradually over a year period it had to be increased slowly to a dose of 160 milligrams a day to have any actual affect of stopping the pain and over a lengthy period of time like 80mg's would give me say 6 or 7 hours of release then the next 80mg's to continue pain relief.
see the thing i did not realise at the time was that i had become a 'drug addict' but because it was all through the 'legal system' i never thought of it in this way, however the reality was that i could not function from day to day without my oxy-contin and other narcotics including more codeine and doloxene. i think an average daily consumption of narcotics for me included the 160 milligrams of oxy-contin, codeine maybe 7 30mg tabs and at least 4 doloxene 60 mg tabs a day. this average consumption of narcotic use was certainly over a one year period if not more time however i can not remember exactly the duration of this concoction of my narcitoc use.
anyway i went overseas once more to mexico to visit my fiance. my g.p gave me a certain amount of oxy-contin as the greatest mg you can get here in australia of oxys is 80mg's so i had a cetain amount enough i thought to sustain me for my planned 6 week visit to there. as well he gave me plenty of codeine, and plenty of doloxene.
anyway to cut along story short i was robbed and there began my greatest nightmare a complete withdrawal in a country 'mexico' where there is absolutely no legal use of any narcotics been
morphine pethedine etc. the mere mention of there names is a sin there. i think i was going to kill myself the withdrawal was both mentally physically and physiologically the most painful moments in my life. funnily enough even more painful than the headaches themselves.
chills sweating like a pig inability to sleep a wink for five consecutive nights aching muscles tears like a baby</