Topic: physicians

There’s no shortage of stories among nurses and doctors about a friend or family member who went through treatment and relapsed, perhaps many times.

Just tracking alone seems to significantly reduce reliance on opioids.

It’s no accident (physicians) choose this often challenging work, and it genuinely bothers them when they can’t relieve a patient’s discomfort.

It becomes easier to dash off a prescription for Oxy than to argue with a determined patient.

Many physicians don’t want to offer opioid maintenance. They’re happy to refer out, to an addictionologist or psychiatrist with training.

If by chance the patient didn’t fit the physician’s preconception of an addict– he or she was a respected member of the community, for example– then the doctor often fell into the enabler role.

Insomnia is at the top of the list of common problems for both active addicts and the newly recovering, and sleeping meds can pose risks.

Is there a disparity between what you can observe and what the patient reports?

The busier the doc, the easier to manipulate. And there’s continuing downward pressure from practice managers to see more patients in less time.

And now there’s the emergence of ‘tip sites’ on the Internet, dedicated to turning the reader into a better-prepared, more successful drug-seeker.