From the headlines, prescription painkillers sound pretty scary.
Some of the people who take them switch to heroin, and some die of overdoses.
The problem is so bad that theFDA has mandated black-box warning labelsabout the risk of abuse.
But at the same time, these drugs are common and useful tools to manage pain.
The medications in question areopioids, drugs that work in the same parts of your brain as opium.
Heroin and morphine are opioids, but so are the main ingredients of prescription drugs likeVicodinandOxycontin.
These drugs obviously relieve pain, and in some circumstances, they can induce a euphoric feeling.
And prescription drugs were directly responsible for half of deaths from opioid overdoses.
And of course, not everybody who gets a prescription ends up addicted.
Prescribers wrote 259 million scripts for opioids in 2012, and most of those were probably taken responsibly.
Thats for two reasons.
Youre not aloneI have two.
(One was my prescription, one was my dogs.)
But you shouldnt save them.
Taking opioids when you need them for pain is pretty safe.
Taking them when you dont have a serious problem is where trouble starts.
), so the prescriptions continued.
By the time recovery was complete, the patient had a stockpile of pills.
One day after work, this patient came home with a headache from a stressful day.
In the medicine cabinet were the leftover Vicodin.
This patient, like many who become addicted, did not intend to start abusing the drug.
For this reason, Dr. DiClementi urges people to get rid of the stockpile of pills.
I know, I know, it feels like a waste.
But youre better off dumping the pills than taking them when you dont need them.
The CDC just issuednew guidelines for prescribing opioidsthat put more responsibility on providers.
With the new guidelines, for example, youre less likely to be able to build a stockpile.
In other words, dont expect her to rubber-stamp refills.
Prescribing decisions get trickier if you have chronic pain.
Its worth trying other treatments, though, says Dr. DiClementiand not just medications.
Animplanted electrical unit can interfere with pain signals.
Hypnosis can shift your focus away from pain.
Psychological approaches work:mindfulness-based stress reductionandcognitive behavioral therapywereeffective in a recent trial.
This doesnt mean that pain is all in your head.
Psychological does not mean imagined or faking, DiClementi says.
Our experience of pain is defined by what goes on in our brains.
Chronic pain is not just a mind thing or a body thing, but both.
The many options for pain treatment vary wildly in their costs and effectiveness.
For help navigating them, talk with your provider or ask for a referral to apain specialist.
