This morning I posted an article from Kaiser Health News about pain management; more specifically that some doctors are requiring patients to sign contracts for use of opioids.
One story in the article intrigued me; a woman who had a long-term relationship with her pain doctor, and who had signed such a contract, went to the emergency room because of a panic attack and was given medicines to calm her down. However, those medicines showed up the next day in her urine during her doctor's appointment. The doctor's office called her, said she was being dropped as a patient, and had 60 days to find a new doctor.
I felt the doctor overreacted because of the extenuating circumstances. But I wasn't surprised. In general, the U.S. healthcare system hasn't much idea how to deal with an individual's chronic pain. Rather, physicians are concerned about rules and regulations pertaining to abuse and misuse of schedule three drugs such as Vicodin and Oxycodone.
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