Pain Patients Say Non-Opioid Meds ‘Do Not Help at All’
/By Pat Anson, Editor
In recent weeks, several efforts have been launched to scale back the use of opioid pain medication in hospitals and emergency rooms.
The American Pain Society (APS) released new guidelines for post-surgical pain that encourage physicians to limit the use of opioids, and to give acetaminophen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), gabapentin (Neurontin), or pregabalin (Lyrica) to patients suffering from postoperative pain. Cognitive behavioral therapy and transcutaneous elective nerve stimulation (TENS) were also recommended by the APS for post-operative pain.
Similar measures were endorsed by an expert panel at the Jefferson College of Population Health in Philadelphia, which warned that relieving a patient’s post-surgical pain with opioids could lead to addiction.
“Clearly, giving patients what they want, or think they need, is not always in their best interest,” wrote lead author Janice Clark, RN, Jefferson College of Population Health.
But most pain patients aren’t getting what they want or what they need in hospitals -- pain relief -- according to an extensive survey of over 1,250 acute and chronic pain patients by Pain News Network and the International Pain Foundation (IPain).
Over half rated the quality of their pain care in hospitals as poor or very poor, and six out of ten patients said their post-surgical pain was not adequately controlled.
And many hospitals are already very reluctant to give patients opioids. Over half (53%) the patients in our survey say they were refused opioid pain medication while hospitalized.
“If you end up in the emergency room you will NEVER be given opioid based pain meds. They use NSAIDs. That usually isn't good enough,” said a patient who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and spinal stenosis.
“This obsession with preventing pain sufferers from receiving adequate care is cruel and unusual. Would you deny a diabetic access to medication to control their condition?”
“They didn't want to hand out an opiate but were sure happy to go get me some Xanax,” said a patient who was hospitalized for an undiagnosed heart problem, as well as back and rib pain. “Welcome to the American standard of schooling and healthcare.”
“I went to the ER for a broken arm, and they took x-rays and told me it was broken. I asked for pain meds, even asked for non-narcotic meds, and got NOTHING, not even an aspirin with a broken arm, nothing while they put a cast on it and nothing to fill when I left,” said another patient.
“The pharma companies are using everything they can to increase the drug costs and these newer drugs are less effective and much more expensive. Soon they'll be suggesting we not use anesthesia for amputations,” said another pain sufferer.
Patients overwhelmingly agreed in our survey that non-opioid medications and therapies were ineffective in relieving pain. Nearly two-thirds (65%) said they “did not help at all” and nearly one in four said they only “helped a little.”
Just 11% said non-opioid treatments were very effective or somewhat effective at relieving pain.
“If they intend to use ‘preferred treatments’ like NSAIDs and Lyrica/Neurontin, they should have a reason for using these more dangerous, less effective meds,” wrote one patient.
“They should know that Lyrica and Neurontin can take months to build in the patient's system in order to be effective, and that NSAIDs can cause heart problems, gastric bleeding, and other side effects which can cause a host of new problems for the patient.”
“Tylenol won't help me and I'm allergic to NSAIDs. Why not do something about the real druggies that ruined it for the real patients? They get their medicines! I won't go to the ER unless I'm dying!” wrote another patient.
“Advil or Tylenol just don't cut it. It's ridiculous that you would not be treated for chronic pain in and out of hospital setting,” said another pain sufferer.
“I'm not surprised there's a perception that pain care is poor, in hospital or out,” said David Juurlink, MD, an internist and clinical pharmacologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.
“It's important that patients understand that one major reason for this is that our available pain medications (principally acetaminophen, NSAIDs and opioids, but various other drugs as well), simply don't work well for many types of pain. I see this firsthand every day, and it highlights the need for research into novel drug therapies that treat pain safely and effectively,” said Juurlink, who is also a board member of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP) and was a consultant to the CDC during development of its opioid prescribing guidelines.
“It's especially important that people not conflate ‘poor pain care’ with ‘reluctance to use opioids,’ because opioids really are no better than our other options for treating pain -- chronic pain in particular -- and they can make pain worse in a very short period of time. This phenomenon (opioid-induced hyperalgesia) is something we're just starting to understand, but it's one of many reasons why patients can have pain that persists or even worsens despite therapy. It's one more reason why doctors and patients need to de-emphasize the role of opioids in managing pain.”
One patient in our survey wishes hospitals would allow medical marijuana to be used an alternative to opioids.
“It would be better and safer if cannabis was allowed in treating pain in hospitals,” they said. ”I don't use opioids every day because I use cannabis instead. When I am in hospital I am forced back on opioids and go through withdrawal when I leave the hospital. This would not be the case if I could keep using cannabis instead.”
Still another patient discovered a novel way to get opioids in the hospital: don’t ask for them.
“I ended up learning to ask for non-opioid painkillers. That way when the painkillers they gave me didn't work, they would actually suggest them,” he said.
To see the complete survey results, click here.
