‘I Sat My Wife Down And Told Her Life Wasn’t Worth It’: Opioid Crackdown Driving Pain Patients To Drastic Measures
“My pain exceeded my ability to handle it," Jon Fowlkes said after he was cut off from his opioid prescription. "We had a very frank discussion. … We even discussed what gun I would use.” Fowlkes is one of many chronic pain patients who feel angry and betrayed by the recent efforts to curb the opioid epidemic.
Politico:
How The Opioid Crackdown Is Backfiring
Last August, Jon Fowlkes told his wife he planned to kill himself. The former law enforcement officer was in constant pain after his doctor had abruptly cut off the twice-a-day OxyContin that had helped him endure excruciating back pain from a motorcycle crash almost two decades ago that had left him nearly paralyzed despite multiple surgeries. (Ehley, 8/28)
Politico:
How Some Patients Successfully Tapered Off Opioids
America is facing what is arguably its biggest public health crisis since AIDS: the opioid epidemic. As lawmakers struggle to address the crisis, POLITICO is following the unintended consequences patients are facing, from doctors who aren’t trained to safely taper patients off opioids to non-drug alternatives that aren’t covered by insurance. We asked for your stories, and more than 500 of you responded. Many of you shared how you tapered off opioids and ideas for others to transition off their prescription painkillers and cope with withdrawal symptoms. (Yu, 8/28)
And in other news —
Bloomberg:
As More Kids Take Drugs, Risk From Dangerous Pairings Climbs
About 20 percent of kids in the U.S. use prescription drugs and many take more than one at a time, putting them at risk of harmful interactions, new research finds. Nearly one in five children and teenagers use prescription medicines, with 7.5 percent taking multiple medications, according to a study of 23,152 kids under the age of 19 in the journal Pediatrics. Of those taking more than one medication, 1 in 12 were at risk for a potentially major interaction. (Hopkins, 8/27)
