Topic: prescription medications

There’s no blood test, no scan to aid diagnosis. Knowing intellectually that one in ten will succumb is very little help; it has no practical value in terms of predicting an individual outcome.

Try thinking of the interaction between drug seeker and practitioner as type of negotiation where the  two parties have very different goals.

As we move to correct this problem, we’ll discover that millions of Americans, regular tax-paying citizens included, are already dependent on them.

One sign of vulnerability: the place tended to be too busy or too slow.

This goes back to a problem in assessing pain. There’s no physical test for what is essentially a subjective experience.

Eventually it’s the business that adapts to a changed environment. But before they do, some will go to great lengths to prop up the revenue from their current opioid products.

Substance Use Disorders don’t appear overnight. People who develop them may use for months or years or even decades before they seek help.

…actually more of an issue now than in the 80’s, because of the presence of super-powerful opioids like fentanyl or carfentanil, and the growing risk of unintended overdose.

Shame always plays a role. Not just the shame of discovery, but the shame of having a problem in the first place.

Here was a physician who regularly committed an assortment of crimes without considering himself a criminal. To his way of thinking, he was the victim.