Many people are in need of pain medication, but they are going to the people that don’t need it as much. About 33.3 percent of cancer patients are left with unalleviated pain. This includes patients that are in their final stages and are at the end of the road.
A survey was conducted to see how people with cancer are being taken care of and how it’s like with an era where opioids are seen as bad.
It consisted of 100 people that wrote about their situations and their treatment and pain relief experiences. They explained that they were treated like people with drug problems and doctors were hesitant to give any pain relief medications that could possibly create an addiction.
Everyone gave reports that they are treated like druggies. Consistently being demonized for just trying to calm the pain, they are treated as if they have a drug issue. Most are scared to ask for alleviation because they believe that they actually are dependent or will become addicted.
But its not only the doctors that fear the addictions, its also the patients themselves that are scared of becoming addicted. They ask about what taking certain amounts will mean for them and their well-being.
There are mixed views and messages between what does and doesn’t affect the patient. Sometimes people will say that the patients on the drug are addicted to it but at the same time they do not feel the high that the drug would give to an addict. Or some end up actually needing the drug because they have become dependent on it. Leaving patients not able to decide whether they want to take a chance to get rid of their pain.
As it turns out from the posts that were taken from the survey was also caregivers that would give the person they were taking care of medication, but now they are hesitant to keep giving them meds because of fear of addiction. Gladly people came to the rescue and advised the caregivers to provide the relief, since relief took priority over possible addiction.
Precautions that we can make to avoid these negative views on using opioids to alleviate pain is to help inform those around us about the importance of managing pain in those in need. There are legitimate reasons for the use of them and its possible to lift the stigmatism that is linked to opioids.
