Re: Chronic Pain Addiction

[Beth Benoit]

Title: Re:  Chronic Pain Addiction

I'm not surprised that doctors would hesitate to prescribe morphine (AND other addicting medications?) for arthritis pain - no matter how severe the case is.  I hope this doesn't sound heartless, but arthritis is a tricky disease.  It bears reminding that arthritis is not a fatal disease.  The degree of pain described, no matter the disfigurement, varies greatly from person to person, which leads naturally to the conclusion that one person's "intolerable" is another's "bearable."    Annette's description of her mother-in-law's difficulty of coping with health problems rings very true for my mother's attitude, and I don't doubt that it figures greatly in the patient's expressed degree of pain. (Of course we've discussed pain threshold on TIPS before.)   I guess when considering a patient of 87, some doctors might feel that addiction is not a great consideration, but with lifespan now offering an otherwise healthy person the possibility of living into their 90's, I think it's often unfortunate that many older patients are "written off." I'd suggest that Annette's mother-in-law has chosen, as my mother has, to be "out of it" rather than endure the pain of her arthritis. I am convinced that with a healthier attitude toward life, many patients would find other ways to deal with their pain than to be zonked out 24/7, as my students would say. Like Annette's husband, I learned growing up that any pain and health problems are very serious and should be accorded _great_ attention. My twin sister and I rejected this attitude, while our younger sister seems to be following our mother's path of hysteria and malingering over any health situation.  I offer the suggestion that people can, of course, have a great need for attention.  Addiction to it?  Well, in the light of the belief of some that a person can be addicted to anything, my guess is this would fit the description of addiction. Beth Benoit University of Massachusetts Lowell Annette Taylor wrote: My personal input (N=1) here is that we had an extremely difficult time getting adequate pain medication, even having made a choice for addition for my 87 year old mother in law who was completely incapacitated by pain by severe, advanced degenerative arthritis of all of her major joints. We felt that as a quality of life issue it would be better if she were addicted to something that at least relieved her constant, all over pain, for a while, even if it meant during that time she would be a zombie, than to have her suffer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It was practically an act of congress to get a morphine patch prescribed, along with other addicting medications as a supplement. So that at least in our case the docs were MOST unwilling to make that decision for her, despite her constant calls and pestering. Is she "addicted to pain" Gosh, I don't know--all I know is that the doctors all concur that she has the worst case of degenerative arthritis many of them have seen, and for the rest of the docs, she's right up there with the worst. As long as I have know her she has had constant pain--about 20 years now. Interestingly, she has difficult coping with health problems overall and my husband tends to be the same way--as soon as he has a sniffle, a headache, a tummy ache he goes to bed for a couple of days! I've just always assumed this was the coping mechanism he learned growing up, from his mom--or has he learned to be addicted to his aches & pains? Anyway, intersting thread. annette >  After > many refills, with little or no follow-up from > overburdened physicians, they are (not > surprisingly) addicted to pain medication.  (Not > addicted to "pain" as the subject of this > thread seems to suggest.)  This from a first-hand > scenario I've been battling (unsuccessfully - > what do _I_ know about medicine and addiction??) > with my mother... > > Beth Benoit > University of Massachusetts Lowell > (Prophet Without Honor) > > > > > Annette Taylor, Ph. D. Department of Psychology  E-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of San Diego   Voice:   (619) 260-4006 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA  92110   "Education is one of the few things a person    is willing to pay for and not get."       -- W. L. Bryan