Need guidelines: safe barbiturate withdrawal, inpatient, limited stay

[Dr. LeFever]

Patient with history of getting prescriptions for pain by more than one physician, very excessive long-term use [abuse]; now an inpatient in PHYSICAL rehab hospital [NOT drug rehab].  Need guidance on safe but speedy withdrawal because of limited stay.  Especially need references: published guidelines, standards, empirical studies, etc.  [Does NIDA have a site or office for this?]

[pat to Dee]

give your son all the codiene he needs to relieve his pain! How can you even question this? He's a boy for god's sake. Study after study shows that people heal better with few complications when they're kept pain free. Besides, codeine in not nearly as euphoric as the main drugs your worried about. Supervise his use of the codiene, but, if anything, anticipate his pain with smaller but more frequent dosing to provide consistent relief without intoxication. Help his mind and body concentrate on healing. Don't let your experience lead to your son suffering needlessly. Just keep it's administration supervised. Don't let him self-medicate, that's the key! He's young. he'll be alright wth the meds, espcially with you there at his side letting him know that the side effects of this drug are just that-- side effects. Not at all the purpose for ever taking the drug. Ease his pain. Push guilt aside and use you knowledge to help him.

[CGTMHI]

The National Institute for Drug Abuse website can be found at:

http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDAHome.html


Med Help International

[Dee]

I thought maybe someone would try to give me some advise on my thread above, maybe it's because Iam making to big a deal of this
I just want to do what's right for my son, take care all

[cindi]

To Dee,  Your child is in pain.  As a Nurse and as a mom I can tell you that pain medicine was invented for a reason.  To help ease the pain and suffering.Taken properly for a shrot time fram will not do any harm.  Did you ever stop to think that wheb He asks for the codeine that maybe he is really in alot of pain and not just asking for it to feel good?  I do understand that is the way we, as addicts think and as mom's we are afraid our kids will follow us.  The risk is there but it does not necessarily mean they will.  Ortho pain is intense.  When my daughter was 5 she had Bronchitis and the only thing that allowed her to rest comfortably with out hurting and coughing was the cough syrup with codeine.  Of course I was leary at first but then I thought if this was me i know damn well i would be taking something to make me comfortable.  She only was on it for a short period of time and then I was able to switch her over to robitussin.  I am all for the use of narcotics when needed.  If it will make you feel more comfortable you can assess hiseal need for the codeine.  Is he acting like he is in alot of pain  ask him to rate the pain on a scale of 1-10 and then medicate him appropriately, is he asking for it too often? These are the things you have to ask yourself. A new law has been passed that when we go into the hospital they ahve to treat our pain appropriately, would you get upset if you took him to the ER and they would not treat his pain in the right way/  I'll bet you woul,  I know i would be spittin nails.  I do know and understand your concerns and it sounds like you are an excellent mom.  I hope this helps and I hope he feels better soon.    cindi

[Dee]

hello everyone,sorry to barge into this thread,need I say why,
this is my dilema, maybe I'm making to much of it,my 14yr old son got hurt monday playing football in a snow storm outside with the neighborhood kids, he has been playing football on the football leagues since he was 7yrs old,just a quick rundown on him,he's a small kid,much shorter than the rest,last year he finally made it on the chart! (doc's)anyways he's very small for his age, but muscular,and very tough, and an awesome football player, he goes against kids 30-40lbs over him,I have seen him take hits that make me cringe, he always get's up and shakes it off,so when he came in monday night saying he thought he broke his wrist,couldn't move it and was in tremendous pain, we knew something was wrong,so off to the emergency room we went, they x-rayed it,they told us that it is hard sometimes to see a brake or a fracture on kids bones,they were very confident that he may have injured (broke/fratured) his growth plate, which can be very serious,put a partial cast on it and told us to take him to a ortho within 3-11 days,they gave him liquid codiene,(he can't swallow pills &still takes chewable tylenol when sick) we gave him a dose and he slept comfortable that night,he has not been back to school yet and does not seem to be getting better(maybe a little)my problem is that Iam very uncomfortable giving him the codiene,and do not unless he's ask's for it,I find myself trying to give him the chewables,and I get a bad feeling when he asks for the codeine,he is a good kid,I have no need to feel the way I do, but I do, am I just being paranoid because of my addiction, am I being unfair to him,I don't want this to be the time when he finds out about pain meds making him feel 'good'I don't want him in pain,yet I don't know how to put these feeling aside! sorry for this being so long! thanks for any replies,take care

[Chad B]

Can we see some credentials?