Prescription drug deaths biggest 'man-made epidemic,' doctor says

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
11/15/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Dr. Sanjay Gupta to host 'Deadly Dose' documentary on CNN this Sunday

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital and CNN's chief medical correspondent, recalls hearing horror stories of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. "It's the biggest man-made epidemic in the United States. That's how a doctor in Washington State described it to me as we sat outside the state Capitol in Olympia," Gupta relates.

Eighty percent of the world's pain pills are consumed in the United States, according to 2011 congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The doctor, Gary Franklin, medical director for Washington State's Department of Labor and Industries told Gupta many heartbreaking tales. The rationale for these stories, it seems, is that since these drugs were prescribed by a doctor, that they were harmless and even beneficial.

"I remember [Franklin] telling me about a teenager dying because he had taken too much narcotic medication after a dental procedure," Gupta says.

The most common scenario for prescription drug abuse or death is when a middle-aged man goes to his doctor complaining of back pain. The doctor prescribes a painkiller. The patient then later dies three years later from an overdose or by mixing the medication with alcohol.

More than 20,000 times a year in the U.S., or every 19 minutes, someone dies from an accidental overdose. Overdoses are now the No. 1 cause of accidental deaths in the United States, even surpassing traffic accidents.

This is partially the fault of physicians, who are far too quick to prescribe something to dull the pain in lieu of addressing the key physical issues. The number of pain prescriptions has increased an astronomical 600 percent from 1997-2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"In the United States, we now prescribe enough pain pills to give every man, woman and child one every four hours, around the clock, for three weeks."

Accidental drug overdoses receive much play in the media when a celebrity dies from one, such as actor Heath Ledger, "but truth is, it's our friends, neighbors and yes, our own family members who are dying."

Former President Bill Clinton was among the first to speak to the doctor about this shameful national phenomenon. "Two of his friends had both lost sons, he told me. The cause: accidental overdose.

"I will never forget how he put it. 'Look, no one thinks having a few beers and an Oxycontin is a good idea, but you also don't expect to die.' I knew at that moment we needed to do our part in the media to shine a bright light on this issue and find solutions that work."

Eighty percent of the world's pain pills are consumed in the United States, according to 2011 congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

While these medication provide relief, "culturally, we have become increasingly intolerant of even minor amounts of pain and increasingly comfortable with taking heavy-duty medications."

The effectiveness of most painkillers begins to wear off after weeks and months of use, and so the patient typically wants more.
"If you are awake you may not notice it, but if you fall asleep with too many of these pills in your system, you never wake up. Add alcohol, and the problem is exponentially worse. People who take pain or sleeping pills and drink a couple glasses of wine are playing Russian roulette."

Gupta will host the documentary "Deadly Dose," addressing these problems on CNN this Sunday. Check your local listings for times.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM

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General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
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Keywords: Prescription drugs, overdose, painkillers, accidental deaths

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1 - 5 of 5 Comments

DJ Dan
1 month ago
My beautiful smart educated kind loving and medical tech employed first son died at 4 am in the morning in late November 2012 after taking a large oxycontin for chronic disc pain and also drinking 3-4 vodka drinks. My only consolation is his death was probably painless. HE doesn't know he's gone but by being careless and thinking "it won't happen to me" he broke the hearts of his 4 year old daughter who will barely remember him, two parents who worshipped the ground he walked on, a brother who was also his best friend, a fiance, and over 300friends patients and others around the nationl.
If you take this poison oxycxontin made by the greedy jerks at Purdue Phamaceuticals in the east, and you drink alchol, you WILL, not maybe, you WILL die in your sleep. Do you have the right to do that to your loved ones? a devasted numb with grief dad in southeast Michigan. Dan M
Sarah K. Bauer
6 months ago
It is important to balance an article about prescription medication abuse with the incredible important role that these medications play in the healthcare system.

The American Pain Foundation recently provided the statistics that over 376,000,000 Americans live with daily chronic pain. More education needs to be provided when these prescriptions are written and then again when provided by the Pharmacy.

It is important to keep those patients with the condition of often crippling chronic pain, access to the appropriate pain relief in order to maintain a decent ,acceptable quality of life.
dave
6 months ago
On average doctors receive 7 hours of education in pain care- veterinarians on average receive 75 hours of education in pain care. Veterinarians are more humane then doctors are. The problems in prescription misues stem from longstanding neglect in medicine of people in pain. Doctors dont want to have adequate education in pain care-they say poor pain care is due to insurers, lack of specialists and people in pain being drug seekers. Until government requires medicine to be more capable in providing adequate care for epople in pain i dont see how things will get better.
david
6 months ago
The prescription drug problems are not man made- they are the result of the longstanding neglect in medicine toward peoples pain-as was the meningitis outbreak. Medicine has put profits before people. They refused to have education in pain care when the opioids proposed opioids rems. They fight against state legislation requiring education in pain care. Medical research largely supports the development of new medications rather then nonpharmacological treatments. According to Dr Volkow of the NIH pain conscortium- doctors have all of 7 hours of education in pain care and veterinarians receive 75 hours of education in pain care. Our veterinarians are more humane when it comes to the suffering of animals then our doctors are when it comes to the suffering of people.
Helen keller said to see without a vision is a terible thing- medicine has yet to develop an inspiring vision nor energetic plan to fix the problems in pain care- so we can expect more of the same suffering due to their careless negligence.
starzec
6 months ago
The question is: Where is the Catholic outrage about this? Man-made concoctions kill far more people (born and unborn) than Planned Parenthood could possibly imagine but Catholics by and large stand behind big pharma and the GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES GIVEN TO THEM.

Why is Catholic Online silent on this issue? Where is Deacon Fournier's editorial blasting big pharma for poisoning Catholics and killing the born and unborn?

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