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OxyContin and other addictions...


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It has nothing to do with connotation. The two technical terms "addiction" and "dependant" should not be used interchangeably.

 

 

I will use them in sentences if it helps to clarify.

 

 

My dog has become so dependant on me that she could not fend for herself in the wild, she would probably die without me.

 

My dog is addicted to dog biscuits, she can't get enough of them. But if she stops recieving dog biscuits she will not start shaking and feel like puking.

 

i would say it a little diifrently----(tho i understand your point)

 

i am dependent on opiods, and will become physically sick (withdrawal) without out them. that's all. depemndence can lead to illness without the meds,.bummer, but not hurting anyone but me.

 

Joe blow is addicted to opiods, and will very likely be tempted to lie, cheat, steal,  and do anything in his power to get more of them. addiction leads to behavior problems. addicts can be driven tyo crimes.

 

i had a nationly reconized pain MD at UCLA explain this carefully to me 5 years ago. hes no dummy.LOL!!!!!!!!!

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It has nothing to do with connotation. The two technical terms "addiction" and "dependant" should not be used interchangeably.

 

 

I will use them in sentences if it helps to clarify.

 

 

My dog has become so dependant on me that she could not fend for herself in the wild, she would probably die without me.

 

My dog is addicted to dog biscuits, she can't get enough of them. But if she stops recieving dog biscuits she will not start shaking and feel like puking.

 

i would say it a little diifrently----(tho i understand your point)

 

i am dependent on opiods, and will become physically sick (withdrawal) without out them. that's all. depemndence can lead to illness without the meds,.bummer, but not hurting anyone but me.

 

Joe blow is addicted to opiods, and will very likely be tempted to lie, cheat, steal,  and do anything in his power to get more of them. addiction leads to behavior problems. addicts can be driven tyo crimes.

 

i had a nationly reconized pain MD at UCLA explain this carefully to me 5 years ago. hes no dummy.LOL!!!!!!!!!

 

Don't take this personally.  It is not about YOU!   LOL

 

 

Dennie

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We have many more alcoholics than all the other drugs combined.

 

Probably because alcohol is legal and so easy to get, compared to the other drugs.

 

I just saw a commercial for the first time which puts an acronym, OIC, to a condition they call "Opioid Induced Constipation," with some sort of pill to relieve it.  When they are making pills to make taking opiates more pleasurable, you just have to know opiate addiction must be in the millions.   It takes a big market to run commercials like that.

Hydrocodone (Vicoden) is the No. 1 prescribed drug in America. The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population consumes 80 percent of the opioids made, and 99 percent of the Hydrocodone made.

Not sure if this is good or bad, those are just the facts.

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I am tired of reading through all this, a couple of you keep spouting off comparing alcohol use to opiate use thinking somehow that Alcohol is worese... BULL SHIT!!

First off, two wrongs, don't make YOU right!!!!

Secondly, I see one hell of a lot more opiate addicts in the hospital on a daily basis than I do true alcoholics. A true alcoholic will go through DTs from withdrawal when they are in the hospital and can't drink.

You ARE an addict if you are running out of medication before the end of the month because you are self dosing. The only exception to this is if you have built up a tolerance and need a dosage adjustment, but if it happens on an ongoing basis, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.

Alcohol my ***!!! Oxycontin alone kills more people every year in the USA than Cocaine does, not only from over doses, but also from stopping cold turkey by patients wanting to see if they are addicted or running out of meds early because they are addicted. It causes frickin heart attacks to not be tapered of off people.

Heavy Opiate abusers usually crush and snort their pills, they don't ingest them. If I were a betting man Dean, that is why your friends wife died in the bathroom, she went in there to crush and snort, no reason to go to the bathroom to swallow a pill and the much faster release of the medication causes the overdose.

These opiate addicts are choking up hospitals and taking care away from sick people who actually NEED care. They are way more needy on the call lights, know exactly how soon their meds are due, but still get on the call light an hour or more early trying to annoy you into medicating them early. The true addicts want everything PRN they can get, trying to get high on a cocktail of opiate and non opiate meds. A typical addict will ask for their iv pain med, their Ativan or Xanax iv / sometimes both, and iv Phenergan for nausea all at the same time. They are manipulative and will lie at the drop of a hat. They will say you did not give them their pain medicine, threaten you, and are the first to try to sue somebody. I had a Sickle Cell patient in her early 20s that got 120 mg Oxycontin scheduled and had Oxycontin IR for break through pain as well as Ativan, Xanax, psych meds and Phenergan. The Oxycontin would put her to sleep. She would cover her whole head with a blanket and set the alarm on her cell phone to wake herself up an hour before her meds were due to get on the call light and start bugging you for her meds.

Roger

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BTW, the "Mark Deneen" tribute was an inside joke.  Some of you probably did not know him.  During his many battles on this forum, it would often progress to the point where he would start whipping out dictionaries and getting into definitions.  It's too bad he flipped a switch and got worked-up enough to cause a seemingly permanent leave of absence.  I often enjoyed his posts, even though they got a little crazy.

yeah we disagreed on most things but we got along ok.
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I disagree that Vicoden is the most prescribed drug in America.

 

http://www.webmd.com/news/20140805/top-10-drugs

 

 

Alcohol is far worse then opiates please educate yourself.

 

I still preach any addiction is bad, whether it's ice cream or percocets. We are humans and have reason and logic, we should be able to control the use of substances through knowledge, and not let them control us.

 

 

Bottom line, education is key.

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It has nothing to do with connotation. The two technical terms "addiction" and "dependant" should not be used interchangeably.

 

 

I will use them in sentences if it helps to clarify.

 

 

My dog has become so dependant on me that she could not fend for herself in the wild, she would probably die without me.

 

My dog is addicted to dog biscuits, she can't get enough of them. But if she stops recieving dog biscuits she will not start shaking and feel like puking.

 

What if your dog started shaking and puking?  What do you call that?

 

 

PAWS

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cdc - OUR GOVERMENT agency for this says:

 

paste: Drinking too much can harm your health. Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.1,2 Further, excessive drinking was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion, or $1.90 a drink.3

 

========================

soooo.....when facts are in, booze is the nasty killer drug. but hey, no stigma for boozehounds, huh?

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This is starting to sound like a "So, what's the big deal?" rant.

 

There is no disputing that opiates are addictive.  Contrary to what has been said above, addiction is not equal to dependence, plus crime.  Addiction is not defined that way.  Addiction exists by way of the body's negative reaction to withdrawal from the drug.  Nothing more.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that opiates are not evil incarnate.  They have their place in a functioning society.  There is just undoubtedly a lot of abuse and unnecessary use of it, which does, in fact, lead to crime and other "bad" behavior.

 

I am not interested in the pill-poppers' never-ending argument that they suffer real pain.  I have heard that argument plenty, and I believe the experience of pain to be real.

 

When I was a bit younger, I used to condemn opiate use, but having aged, seen and talked to more older people with chronic pain, I get it.  I don't so much condemn the use, as much as I feel sorry for the folks that use it.  The pain must be pretty bad.  I have some level of constant, chronic lower back and hip pain, but I will not touch the stuff.  Fortunately, I guess that means my pain is not bad enough.  

 

I have seen the effects of long-term, daily opiate use, and they are not good.  It obviously helps with pain, but in exchange, you get terrible constipation, a bit of lethargy, perhaps nervousness, and some other effects that tend to drag you down. For that reason, I will tolerate pain without the use of drugs as much as possible.  However, I do realize that in some people (and potentially me some day, for whatever reason), the pain becomes so bad, you just have to give in and take the pills.  

 

In the meantime, I value the ability to just sit down on the pot and quickly and easily drop my deposit.  There is huge value in that.  I have seen how messed up people become with they are severely constipated.  I never want to suffer that.  (What an awful topic, but that's reality.)

Jeff,

Your post really nails it.

For short term pain, post-surgery, dental, etc., there is only one thing that is known to work, opiates. The problem is with the treatment of chronic (over 90 days) moderate to severe pain. It really isn't big pharma any more, most of the heavy duty pain meds are all available generically, and a pretty low cost, Hydrocodone for example. It is a balance between trying to identify abusers from people trying to get relief and having a normal a life as possible. A balance between pill mills and doctors who are trying to help their patients deal with chronic pain.

Despite what some have posted on here, there is a problem in the US with prescription pain meds. The number on cause of accidental death in the US is the overdose if prescription pain medications. 45 people A DAY die from prescription pain medication overdoses. More than heroin and cocaine combined. It beat out automobile accidents a few years ago and has stayed there.

The makers of Oxycotin paid the largest settlement by a drug manufacture, over 600 million for misleading the public about the drug's risk of "addiction." Purdue, the manufacturer, had commissioned studies by doctors and othet researchers to say there was low risk of addiction. Yes semantics do come into play. The drug company tried to play that game, that a minute number became addicted. Thousands became dependent, and Oxycotin sales exceeded a billion a year.

I understand the difference from a drug dependence and a drug addiction. I agree with you that is doesn't really matter what word you use, it is the practical effect on a person's life. If someone is drug dependent, using a drug as prescribed, it isn't going to matter to them that they are not addicted when they can no longer get the drug. If they are still in pain their lives are twice as worse, they still have the pain, plus they will go out and find a replacement for it, legally or not.

Here us an article, from a peer reviwed scientific journal, Neuron, about the dilemma doctors face in how to treat chronic pain. It is by one of the foremost experts I have ever met on addiction and pain medication, Dr. Fields.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3073133/#!po=2.27273

Here is a great history of opioid use and regulatiin in the United States:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/upshot/painkiller-abuse-a-cyclical-challenge.html?abt=0002&abg=0

Whatever people take from the article wilo be according to their own viewpoint obviously, but I think the last paragraph is one that people need to focus on which concludes with: "Balancing the needs and risks is a continuing struggle." It is a complex issue, one that goes back over 100 years. It is a major public policy question that has no simple answer.

Travis

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cdc - OUR GOVERMENT agency for this says:

paste: Drinking too much can harm your health. Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.1,2 Further, excessive drinking was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion, or $1.90 a drink.3

========================

soooo.....when facts are in, booze is the nasty killer drug. but hey, no stigma for boozehounds, huh?

Well the same agency posted this:

http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/PainkillerOverdoses/index.html

I think ODing on prescription pain meds is going to carry a stigma, unfortunately a lot of times it carries the stigma of death. I don't really see a difference between the alcohol and prescription pain medications. They are both legal, one with a prescription, the other if you are above a certain age. With alcohol there is about a 10% chance you will become addicted/dependant, based on genetics and some other factors.

With opiates there is a much higher percentage of people who become addicted, or dependant, without regard to genetics, or other factors.

Edited by dwilawyer
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I disagree that Vicoden is the most prescribed drug in America.

 

http://www.webmd.com/news/20140805/top-10-drugs

 

 

Alcohol is far worse then opiates please educate yourself.

 

I still preach any addiction is bad, whether it's ice cream or percocets. We are humans and have reason and logic, we should be able to control the use of substances through knowledge, and not let them control us.

 

 

Bottom line, education is key.

Perfect example of having to understand an issue enough to be able to research it,

Those are the top BRANDED drugs prescribed and sold in US. What you need to search for is most prescribed drug, generic or otherwise.

It is a pretty solid fact it us the mist prescribed drug.

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There are a lot of things wrong in that post Roger. Anyways,

44 a day multiplied by 365 is less than 17,000, compared to the 88,000 for alcohol.

Alcoholics don't go to hospitals for help, they go to the bar or to the convienence store. It's not like us "pill poppers" can just run to the store and load up when we run out.

Running out is just as often due to tolerance issues as it is to abuse issues. Not everyone is chasing the euphoria.

People die from simple ingestion far more than snorting it. It's just as likely that Courtney took too many before she left the house, started not to feel well at the store, and went to the restroom. It's very hard to imagine Courtney snorting a pill, but then, you didn't know her.

Edited by Crankysoldermeister
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In the meantime, I value the ability to just sit down on the pot and quickly and easily drop my deposit. There is huge value in that. I have seen how messed up people become with they are severely constipated.

 

High alcohol use leads to the opposite.  Obviously a nice balance of the two leads to pure happiness.

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cdc - OUR GOVERMENT agency for this says:

paste: Drinking too much can harm your health. Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.1,2 Further, excessive drinking was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion, or $1.90 a drink.3

========================

soooo.....when facts are in, booze is the nasty killer drug. but hey, no stigma for boozehounds, huh?

Well the same agency posted this:

http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/PainkillerOverdoses/index.html

I think ODing on prescription pain meds is going to carry a stigma, unfortunately a lot of times it carries the stigma of death. I don't really see a difference between the alcohol and prescription pain medications. They are both legal, one with a prescription, the other if you are above a certain age. With alcohol there is about a 10% chance you will become addicted/dependant, based on genetics and some other factors.

With opiates there is a much higher percentage of people who become addicted, or dependant, without regard to genetics, or other factors.

 

 

Dont see difference? LOL!!!!  Try this.....opiates are for sick people. It is medicine. Booze is not medicine. Howz that for a difference? Booze is for FUN!!! A drug for fun. Oxycontin not for fun as a purpose...does that mnake it more clear for you??? LOL!!!

 

You seem to not know the diff between sick people withj health problems needing opiate medicine,  and people who criminally abuse various drugs like alcohol and opiates. Sick people are not criminals and not the problem here. LOL!!!!!!!

 

Funny how people view the ill, the weak, those in need of medication....ain't it? But boozing up? No Problem!!!

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