Topic: prescription medications

Based on the vast number of prescriptions for opioid medications written by US practitioners over the past few decades, we’ve become the clear leaders in opioid prescribing.

Of course, if you work in addiction treatment, you probably see some of these same meds being abused by young adults, often beginning in college or grad school.

It isn’t PhDs in the white lab coats who show up at your doctor’s office to provide false or misleading information about drug safety.

We may be stuck relying on the soft stuff– therapy, support, behavior change, even spiritual growth– all those icky-squicky things that neuroscientists struggle to quantify.

It’s the result of a problem in medicine that’s been going on since before I ever started working in the field. The drugs have changed, but the results haven’t.

As a former insurance VP once put it, you spend your day looking at spreadsheets, you forget there are real people out there depending on you.

You might say the drug itself may not be that dangerous, except to our patients. 

It’s also not too difficult to create a ‘homemade’ variety using raw ingredients purchased on the dark web and a common pill press.

Patients with severe substance disorders may experience depression as a result of the cumulative effects of their substance use.

The larger issue is that most drug pricing is still market-driven, or as my endocrinologist puts it, “they charge whatever they can get away with charging.”