The growing and disturbing epidemic of prescription drug abuse has resulted in many addicts looking for their supply in the emergency room. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of visits to the emergency rooms that involved the non-medical use of prescription pain medications more than doubled in the years between 2004 and 2008.
"This is a huge issue for emergency departments because, unlike the office setting, the emergency department treatment of pain is frequently indicated without the benefit of an established doctor-patient relationship and often in an environment of limited resources," said Dr. Jason Hoppe, assistant professor in the department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
At present, prescription pain medications are the number one cause of poisoning deaths in this country. Deaths from prescription overdoses have overtaken those from cocaine and heroin.
"This problem has increased tremendously over the past years," said Dr. Ziad Kazzi, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. "It is hard for me to estimate its frequency in my practice but I would like to say it is at least once per shift."
In 2007, an anonymous physician wrote a satirical blog on Craigslist giving "advice" for drug seekers.
The poster wrote: "Never rate your pain a 10/10. 10/10 means the worst pain you could possibly imagine. I’ve seen people in 10/10 pain and you are sitting there playing Tetris on your cell phone, you are not in 10/10 pain. 10/10 pain is an open fracture dangling in the wind, a 50 percent body surface deep partial thickness burn, or the pain of a real cerebral aneurysm. Even when I passed a kidney stone, the worst pain I had was probably a 7. And that was when I was projectile vomiting and crying for my mother. So stick with a nice 7 or even a 8."
Many emergency room physicians say they do not have the time to discern whether or not a patient is truly in pain or simply drug seeking for the high. At the moment, 39 states have prescription drug monitoring programs. Many more states hope to establish similar programs.
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