Dear politicians in Washington,

The opioid crisis was not caused by chronic pain and yet you seek to punish people in pain anyway because we’re the convenient scapegoats. I’ve written dozens of articles about the opioid crisis previously, but it has clearly not reached you so I’m begging you to listen this time. What you are doing is causing irreparable harm to people in pain.

The opioid crisis and why “partial fills” of opioids is problematic

One policy that is being supported by Senator Elizabeth Warren will harm people in pain. The proposal is a “partial fill” regulation that would allow pharmacists to judge if a patient doesn’t need their entire prescription.

On the surface this doesn’t sound terrible. Unfortunately in the current climate it is already almost impossible to find a pharmacy to fill a pain prescription. It doesn’t matter whether you have cancer pain, post surgical pain, or chronic pain. Pharmacists can already claim they “don’t feel comfortable” filling the prescription the doctor provided. This is someone who knows nothing about your own personal medical history. Yet they get to practice medicine without a license by refusing to fill a prescription.  Regrettably, this proposal backs up their ability to do so.

Pharmacists who know nothing about someone's medical history get to practice medicine without a license by denying prescribed pain medication Click To Tweet

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Overriding the judgement of doctors

Furthermore, the “partial fill” rule means means that if your doctor gives you a prescription for 30 pills, the pharmacist can decide to give you 5. It overrides the judgment of the doctor who actually knows your medical history. It also hurts patients because most doctors are too busy to write a prescription every time a pharmacist decides to play doctor. Additionally, if the pain patient has to continually travel to the pharmacy every week this places a huge burden on someone who is already suffering.

 

As a patient advocate and healthcare writer who is very active in social media, I see reports from thousands of patients who have been denied a refill of valid prescriptions for opioid pain medications. This is particularly true for prescriptions at high doses. And it is a trend reinforced by insurance providers and pharmacy chains as policy without scientific support. It’s pretty obvious that Elizabeth Warren and her colleagues literally don’t know what they are talking about.— Richard “Red” Lawhern, Ph.D., Co‐​founder of the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain 

 

Politicians are using the wrong rationale for addressing the opioid crisis

I’m picking on Elizabeth Warren here because her proposal is the loudest and most recent, but most politicians are approaching the opioid crisis as if it stems from overprescribed opioids. The opioids are pushed on people who don’t need them or are lost and stolen to be used non medically. Although this may have been the case in the beginning of the crisis, it’s not true any longer.

According to the Cato Institute:

…the DEA and other policymakers have effectuated a dramatic reduction in opioid prescribing only to see the overdose rate climb, as non‐​medical users have switched over to cheaper and more readily available heroin and fentanyl provided by the efficient black market. Furthermore, there is no correlation between prescription volume and non‐​medical use or addiction among persons age twelve and up.

There is no correlation between prescription volume of opioids and non-medical use or addiction.

There is no correlation between prescription volume of opioids and non-medical use or addiction. Click To Tweet

 

There is a pain care crisis

The real health crisis is what’s happening to people in chronic pain. The costs of getting pain medication has skyrocketed. People in pain have been regularly dumped by their doctors who are too afraid to treat pain. The closing of pain clinics cuts off thousands of patients from their treatment with no warning. This leads to terrible withdrawal which causes severe side effects, even death. Also, even if a patient isn’t in danger from withdrawal, many in this situation have killed themselves after being left to suffer alone.  Nearly 1 in 10 suicides in the U.S. is due to chronic pain and the rates continue to rise.

Please don’t limit the access to pain medication for those in pain. It will cause immeasurable harm, and the deaths of people in pain will be on your watch.

 

What you can do as pain patients

Contact Senator Warren to politely let her know what pain patients deal with. Our representatives probably don’t get to spend much time with those who experience chronic pain and suffer from the opioid crisis. They need to be made aware.