Addiction to Painkillers Hard to Overcome

[twilight]

<<BOSTON - Rush Limbaugh is not alone. Addiction to prescription painkillers has boomed in recent years, and they can be as tough to kick as heroin. >>

snip again<<"It's just so much more acceptable in society for people to be taking prescription drugs," said Sean Evans, 31, of Everett, Mass., a construction worker who became addicted to the pain reliever OxyContin, then moved on to heroin. "You can always rationalize the reason to take it."

Limbaugh, the conservative radio commentator, told his audience Friday he is addicted to prescription painkillers that he began taking after spinal surgery "some years ago." >>

snip again<<He said he had checked himself in for treatment twice before, without success. This time, he said he was headed to a rehab center for a month "to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me."

Limbaugh may be overly optimistic about the time frame, said Alice Young, a psychology professor and a drug researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit.

"He had said he was going into treatment and lick it within 30 days. I think that's probably an unrealistic expectation," she said.>>

more here ....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031016/ap_on_he_me/prescription_abuse_3

Ain't gonna be so damn easy pigboy ... have fun crapping yourself to death!!! :evilgrin:

[rocktivity]

1. "Some abusers of painkillers are no longer in pain

and take the drug purely for pleasure. Others, as Limbaugh said of himself, are also getting relief from pain..."

Still others take the drug purely for pleasure and use chronic pain as their alibi when they're caught.


rocknation

[OneBlueSky]

2. those using opioids for pain relief generally don't get addicted . . .

The Agony and the Ecstasy
How the OxyContin crackdown hurts patients in pain
by Melinda Ammann
reasononline
April, 2003

http://reason.com/0304/fe.ma.the.shtml

given all the recent discussion about Rush and oxy, here's an article that talks about the dilemma created when an effective pain relief medication can also be misused . . .

(snip)

"Much of the concern about OxyContin stems from a misunderstanding of addiction. Aronoff observes that people mistakenly equate addiction with tolerance (the need for higher doses to achieve the same effect) and so-called physical dependence, changes in the body that lead to withdrawal symptoms if the drug is abruptly withdrawn. Anyone who takes an opioid like OxyContin every day will eventually develop tolerance and physical dependence, but addiction requires an attachment to the drug’s psychoactive effects. "Addiction is characterized by the repeated, compulsive use of a substance despite adverse social, psychological, and/or physical consequences," says Aronoff. "Addiction is often, but not always, accompanied by physical dependence, withdrawal syndrome, and tolerance."

"Conversely, people who take OxyContin and other opioids for pain may develop tolerance and physical dependence, but that doesn’t mean they’re addicted. Several studies conducted during the last few decades have found that patients who receive narcotics for pain rarely end up seeking the drug for nonmedical reasons. "One study found that only 4 out of about 12,000 patients who were given opioids for acute pain became addicted," the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports. "In a study of 38 chronic pain patients, most of whom received opioids for four to seven years, only two patients became addicted, and both had a history of drug abuse."

(snip)

"Rogers resents anti-OxyContin crusaders who gloss over or ignore the drug’s benefits for pain patients like him. "Their backs probably don’t hurt," he says. "No matter what kind of drug is ever produced, there will always be people who will abuse it and give it a bad name. These people never represent the thousands of legitimate patients like me who are not addicted but depend on it for some kind of life, as pain-free as possible."

- much more . . .

http://reason.com/0304/fe.ma.the.shtml

[boilerbabe]

6. That's an interesting clarification

on a controversial issue! Whether someone uses pain medication for pain or pleasure seems to be something that gets confused. Certainly cessation of pain would be considered a form of pleasure wouldn't it?

Anyway, Rush Limbaugh did a good job of damage control (he inhaled! haha). But if this were some well-know Democrat, you know that there would be such a ruckus raised about this whole thing, whereas it seems the party known for its compassion (unlike the "compassionate conservatives" uh is that an example of an oxyMORON)has been thus far quite forgiving.

Speaking for myself, I have a very high tolerance for pain medication, even without taking it on a daily basis. I was hospitalized last winter with a collapsed lung, and even after prodigious amounts of morphine and oxycodone, I could still feel the pain. When I go to the dentist, I have to have 2 or 3 shots of Novocaine. Maybe there's a lot of sludge in my system!

XXXOOO

[loyalsister]

7. I know about this

I have experienced it. I took some narcotic pain killers for awhile. The physical things that happen are the opposite of the side effects. It's a result of neurological "classical conditioning" clinically known as a "condition compensatory response." When side effects like dry mouth or constipation occur, the body compensates by producing natural irrigating and diarhetic responses. As a result, when the drug isn't present, a person experiences diarhea and a runny nose.

If the dependence is strictly physical, it's like having allergies and\or the flu. A person can deal with it and move on without any sort of psychological draw back to the drug.
I dealt with a physical withdrawal not long ago, and still have some Percecet sitting in my medicine cabinet. I may need to take some later and don't want to have to pay for another prescription.

[cliss]

3. Would you give up your hearing for it?

That's quite a high price. I'm not so sure I would, because Rush is still stuck with his addiction, and he's lost his hearing.

And the way he blabs, can you imagine him flapping his lips without hearing what he's saying?

[Dr Fate]

4. He abuses drugs recreationally for sure...

...think about it- all he does is play golf, drink booze, watch sports/TV and run his mouth everyday on the radio- he has been getting high as a kite and LOVING every minute of it- pain my tail- not playing golf too...he was taking narcotics for fun, having a ball, and now the abuse has caught up with him...

The drugs also explain why his weight fluctuates more than Luther Vandross...

[diamond14]

5. rush flashback (from Bartcop).....pic

thanks to http://www.bartcop.com