When used responsibly, pain medication can relieve human suffering, shorten hospital stays, and reduce health care costs. Yet these medications also carry the potential for abuse, a problem that grew steadily during the 1990s and continues today.
The 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse revealed that 36 million Americans have abused prescription-type drugs — that is, used them at least once in their lifetime for purposes other than treating a medical condition. This includes about 10 million people aged 12 to 25. The survey also reports that the annual number of new users of pain relievers for nonmedical purposes has been increasing since the mid 1980s, from about 400,000 new users to 2 million in 2000.
While these statistics are alarming to the general public they represent a significant relapse mechanism for the thousands of people actively involved in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. How often do we hear of recovering friends who have relapsed who feel that their involvement with doctor prescribed, legitimately necessary pain or anxiety medication led to the relapse into the use of alcohol or their drug of choice?
The use of prescribed drugs by recovering people is a frequent topic at meetings. It is a confusing and highly emotional issue when discussed. There is a wide divergence of opinion and most people feel very strongly about their position.
The early founders of twelve step recovery were smart enough to realize that recovering people were not doctors, pharmacists or medical experts. They taught that we should get our advice in these matters from medical professionals. Unfortunately the medical profession has a minimum level of understanding of addiction. For this reason it is necessary for people in recovery to take responsibility for their own recovery and let their doctors know that they are addicts. If this fact does not seem to alter or cause a reaction from their doctor it may be time to find one more sensitive to their recovery.
As pharmaceutical drug abuse continues to be a serious problem drug companies have begun to get involved in the development of non-narcotic pain medication. These are readily available but not usually prescribed unless the doctor is aware that his patient is a recovering person.
Another positive development is the advent of pain management programs which are either built into a hospital’s medical program or offered at various treatment centers. In these programs patients are taught the facts about prescription medications, supervised in the taking of their medications and taught other less invasive approaches to the management of pain. A good pain management program generally includes the use of alternative medical techniques which include but are not limited to massage, chiropractic medicine, traditional chinese medicine, acupuncture, herbal treatments and meditation techniques.
The Solution Newspaper generally covers a variety of topics in each issue but we thought that the serious nature of pain management required a more concentrated effort. This is the first time that we have put together an issue which primarily deals with one subject. We realized that many of our advertisers deal with pain management in one form or another so we asked several of them to contribute articles on the subject.
Our hope is that the contents of this issue will shine a light on the dangers of prescription drug abuse among recovering people. We hope that the articles on alternative approaches to pain management will be helpful to those who need to deal with this very important issue. As with all of our recovery decisions, dealing with pain is personal and complex. We hope this issue of The Solution Newspaper will help you make the best possible decisions for your continued successful recovery.