Today's post from webmd.com (see link below) unfortunately adds somewhat to the hysteria currently surrounding opioid prescription for chronic pain. Yes the statistics are alarming and yes the potential for addiction is high if doctors don't have a serious follow-up program of control but the vast majority of patients with chronic pain, don't take opioids because they want to, they take them because all other alternatives have been exhausted and are not working. In that respect, opioids are an extremely useful and effective painkiller. They do require careful monitoring and that needs to be an active partnership between doctor and patient but the current assumption is that patients can't be trusted to do things properly and that is insulting to say the least. Nobody with chronic pain such as neuropathy wants to be addicted to a drug but everybody wants their symptoms to be reduced so that a normal life is possible. Under the right conditions, opioids can be very effective in doing that. Hopefully, common sense and not hysteria will rule the day.
While 99 percent exceed the recommended 3-day dosage limit, a quarter write prescriptions for a full month
-- When American doctors give their patients narcotic painkillers, 99 percent of them hand out prescriptions that exceed the federally recommended three-day dosage limit, new research suggests.
And some doctors exceeded that limit by a lot: Nearly one-quarter gave out month-long dosages, despite the fact that research has shown that a month's use of prescription narcotic painkillers can cause brain changes, the National Safety Council survey found.
"Opioids do not kill pain. They kill people," Dr. Donald Teater, a medical advisor at the safety council, said in a news release. "Doctors are well-intentioned and want to help their patients, but these findings are further proof that we need more education and training if we want to treat pain most effectively."
The problem has reached the point where these highly addictive painkillers, which include commonly prescribed drugs such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin, now account for more drug overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the report.
Unfortunately, the survey further revealed that while almost 85 percent of doctors screen for signs of prior narcotic painkiller abuse, just one-third ask about a family history of addiction. Only 5 percent offer direct help to patients when signs of abuse are uncovered, and less than 40 percent refer such patients for treatment elsewhere, the survey found.
The survey results, conducted in early March and released Thursday, come at a time when drug overdoses have reached record highs in the United States. Just this month, two federal agencies proposed measures to try to curb the narcotic painkiller abuse epidemic.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered that warning labels be used for prescription narcotic painkillers. And last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued tough new guidelines for doctors on prescribing these medications.
In December, the CDC announced that fatal drug overdoses had reached record highs in the United States -- driven largely by the abuse of prescription painkillers and another opioid, heroin. Many abusers use both.
According to that December report, more than 47,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdose in 2014, a 14 percent jump from the previous year.
The safety council survey, of 200 doctors, found other troubling trends: Roughly three-quarters of doctors indicated that they believed that pain relief is best achieved by offering patients one of two opioids: morphine or oxycodone (Oxycontin). But experts from the safety council noted that over-the-counter pain relievers (including ibuprofen and acetaminophen) are more effective at providing short-term pain relief.
Misinformation particularly seems to be at play when it comes to tackling back pain and dental pain. While more than 70 percent and 55 percent of doctors say they prescribe narcotic painkillers for back pain and dental pain, respectively, these drugs are not considered the ideal treatment for either condition, according to the safety council.
Interestingly, the safety council found in an earlier survey that roughly half of all patients are actually more inclined to see their doctor again if non-narcotic painkillers are offered.
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Today's post from digitaljournal.com (see link below) talks about a project to launch a national neuropathy patient registry in the U.S. The Neuropathy Association and ResearchMatch are getting together to create this registry with the aim of collating information from both people looking for research participants and people looking to take part in research studies. In this way, it is hoped that progress in neuropathy research will be speeded up and effective solutions will be found more quickly. It has the advantage of giving neuropathy patients more of a say in the research process and providing the researchers with up-to-date and relevant information to work on. Can only be a good idea. More information can be found by following the links in the article.
New York, NY (PRWEB) May 12, 2014
The Neuropathy Association and ResearchMatch announce they are collaborating to launch a patient registry to improve and expedite neuropathy research. The Neuropathy Association is a national non-profit patient advocacy organization dedicated to bringing help, hope and healing to people with various forms of neuropathy; ResearchMatch is the first nationwide, non-profit, volunteer, research recruitment platform for all health conditions. According to Kathleen Edson, community engagement manager at ResearchMatch, "The registry collaboration aims to bring together two groups of people who are searching for each other: people who are trying to find neuropathy research studies, and researchers who are looking for people to participate in their studies."
ResearchMatch's free, secure, online registry has been developed by major academic institutions across the U.S. to engage the general public in today's ethical, expedited research. This innovative collaboration with The Neuropathy Association establishes a dedicated nationally accessible registry for neuropathy that provides a voice for all neuropathy patients in the research process. Volunteers who register and indicate "neuropathy" as one of their conditions will be prompted to answer additional questions about their condition to better enhance the precision and prescreening process for matching volunteers with research teams who are studying all forms of peripheral neuropathy.
A free informational webinar explaining the registry will be held on Wednesday, May 21, from 7:00- 8:00 pm Eastern followed by a half hour question and answer session on The Neuropathy Association's Facebook page. To register for the webinar, please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/955787529. To learn more about the registry and/or to register, please visit http://www.researchmatch.org.
Peripheral neuropathy, or "peripheral nerve damage," impacts well over 20 million Americans (at least 1 in 15), making it one of the most common chronic diseases and a leading cause of adult disability. Neuropathy disrupts the body's ability to communicate with its muscles, organs, and tissues. Symptoms can include numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain often beginning in the hands and feet. With early diagnosis, it can often be controlled and quality of life restored. If ignored, symptoms can intensify to loss of sensation, weakness, unremitting pain, and/or disability. Even though neuropathy is at epidemic proportions in the U.S. and abroad, it is often misunderstood, mis- and under-diagnosed, as well as inadequately treated. Limited research opportunities and limited research funding have limited the scope of treatment and curative possibilities for specific neuropathy and neuropathic pain conditions.
"Patients and researchers alike are frustrated with the slow progress being made with neuropathy research. Patients feel disenfranchised from the current clinical trial process because they are still unable connect with the research and researchers addressing their specific health issues; researchers are also finding it challenging to identify qualified research participants. Harnessing the power of today's on-line technologies, ResearchMatch's unique, elegant and easy-to-use platform--already accessible to all National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded researchers as well as the majority of leading researchers across the U.S.-- empowers patients to self-identify for research studies and enables researchers to match their work with the types of study participants they seek," shares Tina Tockarshewsky, president and CEO, The Neuropathy Association.
"A significant factor delaying the development of new treatments is the recruitment and retention of clinical research study participants--both patients as well as healthy volunteers. We're working proactively with researchers and patients to drive awareness for on-going clinical research study opportunities and to help with recruitment efforts. This collaboration with ResearchMatch is a critical addition to our toolkit and to our overall efforts to better understand neuropathy and bring forth new treatments and cures," notes Natacha T. Pires, MBBS, director of medical and public affairs at The Neuropathy Association.
"This registry increases the ability to bring a wider scope of volunteers to a broader range of researchers who are working on the spectrum of challenges impacting neuropathy patients," observes Dr. Thomas Brannagan, The Neuropathy Association's medical advisor. "Often studies are stalled by difficulty with recruitment and delays. By increasing the likelihood of matching candidates for study recruitment, we increase the probability that more neuropathy research can move forward quickly."
Of the over 100 known types of neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy represents over a third of all neuropathies, making diabetes the leading cause. A third of neuropathies are "idiopathic" (unknown cause). Other neuropathies include autoimmune-related, hereditary, cancer or chemotherapy-related, entrapment or trauma-related, and neuropathies related to causes such as toxin-induced, nutritional deficiencies, gastro-intestinal disorders, metabolic diseases, or infectious diseases (including Lyme and HIV/AIDS).
This patient registry launch kicks off Neuropathy Awareness Week, May 12-16, 2014. This tenth annual event was initiated by The Neuropathy Association to change perceptions of and promote prevention of this progressive, chronic, and often extremely painful neurological disease and growing national epidemic. Working together with advocates across the U.S. and abroad, The Neuropathy Association and its community of patients, their loved ones, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and industry partners are pleased to announce the following events occurring during and in tandem with Neuropathy Awareness Week:
About The Neuropathy Association
Founded in 1995, The Neuropathy Association is the leading national nonprofit organization providing neuropathy patient support, education, advocacy, and the promotion of research into the causes of and cures for peripheral neuropathies through its nationwide network of members, regional chapters, 15 medical Centers of Excellence, and 150 patient support groups.
About ResearchMatch
ResearchMatch is a national partnership created as a centralized, web-based recruitment registry, connecting individuals who are interested in participating in research with researchers nationwide. The site is a funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program grants. The CTSA program is led by the NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS). The content of this website is solely the responsibility of ResearchMatch and Vanderbilt University and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014NeuropathyAwarenessWk/ResearchRegistry/prweb11841989.htm
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1909456#ixzz330LzpB1Lhttp://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1909456
