Clinicians Reluctant To Prescribe Naloxone for Opioid Overdose
The number of fatal overdoses from opioid medication use has quadrupled in the United States since 1999. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each day 44 people die from prescription painkiller overdoses. In the event of an overdose, opioids depress respiration until breathing stops. The drug naloxone reverses these effects and can prevent fatal outcomes.
Researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Denver Health Medical Center and the University of Colorado School of Medicine conducted 10 focus groups with 56 clinicians from August 2013 to August 2014. They asked about attitudes regarding prescribing naloxone to patients also taking opioids prescribed for pain at internal medicine, family medicine and HIV clinics. Key findings included:
- Clinicians commonly expressed beliefs that naloxone could effectively prevent overdose deaths.
- Clinicians agreed that prescribing the drug may increase patient understanding of the risks associated with opioid use.
- Only three of 37 clinicians with prescribing authority had prescribed naloxone.
- There were logistical challenges, such as time restraints within clinical appointments, to widespread naloxone prescribing in busy primary care practices.
- Clinicians hesitated to prescribe naloxone because they did not want to offend patients by talking about their risk for overdose.
- Clinicians wanted to be certain that the bystanders who would administer naloxone receive proper and confidential training, and would be able to recognize the signs of an overdose.
- Clinicians expressed concerns about possible adverse effects of the drug in widespread use. Focus group participants wanted evidence that having naloxone available does not lead to riskier use of opioids.
Filed under: General Problems
How many of those 44 opiate deaths a day are intentional? People can only live in excruciating pain for so long and I’m really speaking from experience here. I had a friend of mine who was a 2 time cancer survivor but lived with unbearable pain every single day for years. This man was the father of four and was just graced with the arrival of his first grandchild. Tom was a proud man that never complained about a thing, especially his pain but you could tell that the meds weren’t helping like they used to. One day while the whole family was gone, he wrote a simple but to the point note, grabbed his youngest sons 12 gauge shot gun from his room, walked into the woods and took his life.
The note said, “Boys please don’t let your mother find me. I could not bare to be a burden on any of you anymore. I’m behind the garage between here and the tracks. I love you all and I’m sorry.”
So my point is, instead of just shutting opiates down. Find something that will do some good. Don’t take away anything until they have a viable substitute.
Wow…that brought tears for me. I’m sorry for the loss of your friend. I used to work a home hospice 20 years ago when pain management was finally being recognized as legitimate chronic condition This current witch hunt has set all of it back 50 years and it’s beyond obscene.
Thank so very much for your reply. The reason why I told this story was for impact more than for sympathy but I and his family truly appreciate it. He was really a very good man that did love his family. The burden that he spoke of in his letter wasn’t his disability but the financial burden on his family. My point is, how many people who suffer from chronic pain are committing suicide using pain medications?
If the DEA and other federal agencies are using overdose statistics to regulate prescription medications, don’t you think they should have all the facts first? I am willing to bet that if they did get the facts, they would find out that most of the overdose deaths are due to suicide because of pain, medical debts and depression.
A large number could probably be credited to accidental over medicating. The few that can be associated with addiction were more than likely bought on the streets or stolen out of their parents medicine cabinets.
Maybe the government needs to look a little more into mental health issues and drug awareness in schools instead of pointing fingers at the medical professionals. They should also look into the fact that health care costs are continuing to sky rocket and people are getting buried in medical bills.
Finally, they need to look at why so many Americans are becoming disabled and unfortunately needing these medications. Look at the map of prescription averages. The mid west has the highest average of opiate prescriptions. Now look at the industry in the red. You have the shipping industry with the great Lakes and the Mississippi River. You have the oil industry and the automobile industry. These are just 3 of the majors but there are a lot more that are as physically demanding as these 3. It’s simple, people are getting hurt at work and the federal Government isn’t regulating the company’s that these accidents are happening at.
Very sorry for your loss, Doug.
Treating cancer is very expensive — if I’m ever diagnosed with that disease, I know I won’t be able to afford the treatments. But I know I’ll finally have access to the pain medications that help my pain. So, cancer would be both good news and bad news for me.
It’s truly unfortunate that people have to have a life threatening disease to have access to medications for pain. I believe that chronic pain, because of the staggering amount of suicides should be reclassified as life threatening.
I also believe that I stead of our government getting involved in every single war throughout the world, that they need to keep that money at home and treat the chronically ill. It only makes sense, if a person can barely afford their own bills at home, they won’t donate their last penny’s to a foreign relief fund. Oil is not worth one single life!
But we’re getting off the subject. The US health care system is broken and our federal government is loosing the parts needed to fix it. People are dying every day with needles in their arms because they are denied needed medical and mental illness treatments and our government is impeding those treatments even more.