Wonder drug may cause more harm than good

Israel Nelson-For the Frontiersman

A prime component of good personal health care means being aware of our own bodies, what makes them work and what causes them to break down. We need to take that information with us when we go to the doctor for treatment. We need to remember that doctors are human and can make mistakes and miss important information. When the doctor prescribes a medication, it is important to learn all we can about the medication before we take it.

For example, oxycodone is a wonder drug. It has been found to be very effective in the treatment of chronic pain conditions. What few people realize about this medication is that it is a synthetic derivative of opium. So is heroin. Both heroin and oxycodone deaden pain. The wonder of oxycodone is that in its most recent popular form, OxyContin, it is a time-release medication. It deadens pain for a long time. People with chronic pain and their doctors appreciate this feature about the medication.

Some people wonder how they ever got addicted to oxycodone and if they will ever get free of its tenacious grip on their lives. Oxycodone, like heroin and opium, suspends judgment in the person who uses the drug. It is very addictive, and the more OxyContin is used, the more it is required to achieve pain relief. Heroin addicts discovered oxycodone. Many heroin addicts now seek out doctors to get prescriptions for oxycodone medications because they can then claim that their use of prescription medication is legitimate. "My doctor prescribed it!" they cry when challenged about their abuse of the medications. The trouble is that oxycodone, like heroin, leads all too often to death by overdose. The Federal government reports that no prescription drug in the last 20 years has been so widely abused so soon after its release as OxyContin. It was reported in October 2001, that OxyContin was suspected of playing a key role in the overdose deaths of 282 people in the prior 19 months.

Perhaps some doctors are naive. A patient comes to the doctor with complaints of chronic pain. The doctor, wanting to honor the Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm", prescribes this wonder drug. In reality, the patients are often addicted to alcohol and/or a variety of other drugs and prescription medications. The doctor prescribing this wonder drug to the patient who has an addiction, does more harm than good by helping make the addiction worse. Dedicated medical professionals who are sophisticated in the practice of medicine obtain detailed histories from their patients to rule out addictions to alcohol or other addictive drugs. These medical practitioners do not prescribe oxycodone medications to known alcoholics and drug addicts.

If you have chronic pain, it is important to be equally sophisticated and honest in your partnership with your doctor. It is important to know how your body works and how it responds to medications. It is important to resist the "easy way" of accepting a prescription for a "wonder drug" that may ultimately be very harmful to you. There are a variety of alternative pain management strategies that can be explored. Agree to use oxycodone medications only as a last resort, only for a limited time.

The pharmaceutical company that makes OxyContin has spent a lot of money giving free samples to doctors who could then give it to patients so that in the end the pharmaceutical company could make lots of money. Be aware of pharmaceutical companies peddling their drugs, and learn all the important facts about those drugs before taking them.

Israel Nelson is a licensed master social worker, a chemical dependency clinical supervisor, and a national certified counselor, working at Mat-Su Recovery Center.