Reply to Just how prevalent is this oxy addiction thing among our young adults in top privates?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A takeaway here is parents must take teen pain very seriously.

Opiates after a severe bone break are not inappropriate.  But the parent has to control very carefully and take proactive measures to manage any lingering pain.  This needs to be discussed with the doctor--no harm on impressing on them the dangers of teen pain because most simply don't get that if they won't it is all too easy for the teen to find things he can self-medicate with.

If your teen complains of pain without obvious cause treat this as a medical emergency.  Go see a doctor.  If he is dismissive or hints it's all psychological so doing anything will just feed the psychological illness, go to doctor after doctor until you find one that will take it seriously and address it urgently through non-opiate means.  At a minimum, this will show your teen you are on their side and you at least are taking it seriously.  This helps prevents the despair that causes teens in this situation to turn to drugs.

And all of the above also applies to mental pain as well.[/quote]

+++++ 10000

We do not accept opiates for a bone break, wisdom teeth, etc.

We throw away all opiates in the house. We don't leave drugs around the house.

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If only all parents were as wise.
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As far as I know, there is almost nothing out there in terms of popular articles or even more academic works that warns parents about the dangers of teen pain and how it can lead to addiction. Heck, doctors don't seem to know how dangerous it is. For that reason, it is a very hard lesson parents learn after the fact.

Interestingly, there is way more public awareness of mental health problems and addiction potential. We need at least as much awareness for physical pain, especially among those we naturally turn to in these situations, the doctors.

(Messed up earlier post)[/quote]

The sad this is my sister (her daughter is addicted) asked the doctor to not prescribe opiates. He said, I am not an addiction specialist I treat pain and this is what I recommend.

That is crazy to me. Doctors DO NOT CARE. Their job is to write the script if the person can prove they are in pain, not how much pain. Prove also mean, saying "I am in pain."

We really need to realize doctors are human and many are just in it for the money. [/quote]

I am not opposed to doctors prescribing opiates to deal with acute pain like you get post op or after a bad break.  In fact, it could be cruel not to.  But it should be the absolute minimum over the shortest period of time and the doctor needs to make sure the parent is responsible and in charge of keeping them safe and administering them.  There should be a campaign to add addiction as a possible serious medical complication of surgery or accidents and doctors should be taught how to prevent this complication just as they are taught steps to take to avoid other complications.

Opiates should not be given for chronic pain.  But it needs to be taken just as seriously and doctors faced with a teen with such a problem should 1) try his best to get a diagnosis for the teen (can be very challenging) and 2) from the outset convey to the teen that he takes the pain very seriously and embark immediately on throwing all the non-opiate ways of alleviating pain at the problem.  Controlled use of Tylenol/NSAIDs may be appropriate, PT prescriptions should be granted generously--even overly generously, as should prescriptions for things like TENS machines.

There is a shortage of doctors who specialize in teen pain management, but doctors should make every effort to get a teen to one to prevent the complication of addiction.  All of this applies to all situations, including those where the doctor would prefer to be an amateur psychiatrist and say the pain is all in the teen's head.  As an aside, adults, especially women, get this treatment all the time from doctors, but they have the executive function in most cases to not seek out street drugs.  Also adults are far less equipped than teens to actually find the street sources.[/quote]

Isn't part of the problem prescribing the really potent Oxy, as opposed to the less potent things like Tylenol with codeine?  When I was a kid that's what you got for wisdom teeth or whatever, and I don't recall anyone getting addicted to Vicodin.

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