overdose Archives - The Painful Truth

Open Letter to Secretary Tom Price

Mother Jones reports, “On a listening tour about the opioid epidemic in West Virginia on Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price stressed the urgency of tackling the staggering overdose problem, saying ‘we’re losing people every single day across the nation, so we don’t have time to wait.’ ”

Secretary Tom Price’s View Reflects a Misunderstanding

Secretary Price was right about that. However, “when it came time to discuss solutions, Price contradicted guidance from his own agency by asserting that medications to treat opioid addiction are ‘just substituting one opioid for another.'” As NPR says, his remarks were “unscientific and damaging.”

Here Are the Important Questions We Need to Ask About Prince’s Fentanyl Overdose

You’ve probably heard by now that a medical examiner has determined Prince, the musical superstar, died of a fentanyl overdose.

While other opioids get more attention, fentanyl is the stealth bomb for abusers.

Fact About Fentanyl

Fentanyl is 100 times more dangerous than morphine. The dose at which fentanyl produces the pain relief that users require, and the euphoria that drug abusers seek, occurs quickly and at low doses.

However, the dose required to stop a person’s breathing is only a little bit more than the amount users need to get relief from their pain or to get high.

Prince and Why We Need More Compassion About Addiction

We don’t yet know why Prince died. The facts aren’t in, and I don’t want to draw conclusions until I have more information.

That said, some entertainment media outlets (TMZ, Variety, and more) are reporting that Prince was treated with naloxone, which is the antidote for opioids including heroin, in the days before his death.

If that were true, it would mean that Prince was taking too much of a substance, whether it was prescribed or not.

But, if that turns out to be the case, it won’t change the fact that he was a musical icon, and it won’t change the fact that the world has lost an irreplaceable voice.

Will the New Opioids Restrictions Help to Reduce Overdoses?

New CDC Opioid Guidelines

Politicians and some government officials tell us that the new CDC opioid guidelines will reduce deaths due to overdoses. But, based on the evidence we’ve seen so far, that is unlikely.

The latest CDC report shows a continual increase in opioid-related overdose deaths despite about a 25% decrease in the number of opioids prescribed. This data demonstrates that an absolute reduction in opioid prescribing hasn’t resulted in the intended outcome–so far, at least. It may be counter-intuitive, but I think you’ll understand why in a moment.

Is Death from Pain a Natural Death?

What is a natural death?

That’s partly a judgment call, and it reveals our prejudice against pain patients.

Pain treatment and cancer treatment are two colors of the same spectrum.

They both serve the same purpose, and yet they’re perceived very differently. Pain treatment with an opioid is unacceptable to many advocating against the use of opioids for non-cancer pain. Cancer treatment, on the other hand, is valiant — whether it works or not, whether it hastens death or not.