new YORK (Reuters Health) – Veterans of the
wars of Iraq and Afghanistan which are treated by
pain are more likely to receive powerful painkillers if
have mental health problems, including the disorder of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“There is a culture of eliminating the pain and I think that,
“”
Unfortunately, the pendulum went too far”, said the
lead author, Dr. Karen Seal, of the University of
California, San Francisco, and the Medical Affairs Center of the
San Francisco veteran.
“What we must do is evaluate the patients
“
individually and talk with them about what we know about
the risk of the use of opioids, especially in those with
“
mental problems”, he added.
The number of prescriptions of these powerful analgesics
grew not only among veterans, but also between the
civilian population, with a rise in deaths and the
hospitalizations attributed to its use.
According to the CDC, the number of Americans who die by
a prescription drug overdose tripled in the
20 years. In 2008 14,800 people died rather than
by the consumption of cocaine and heroin combined.
Seal found that some patients with pain and disorders
mental would feel so well, or perhaps better, with the use of
psychotherapy, physiotherapy and anti-inflammatory drugs, such as
buprofeno.
With his team analysed data of about 141,000 veterans of
war under treatment for pain in a medical affairs Center
veteran between 2005 and 2010; some them had
diagnosed with a mental disorder. About 16,000 had
prescribed at least one treatment with opioids for three
weeks.
Less than 7 percent of Veterans without disruption
mental are you had indicated an opioid, compared with a 12
percent of veterans with depression or anxiety
diagnosed and nearly 18 percent of veterans with
PTSD.
More than one-third of veterans with PTSD, a disorder by
substance abuse and pain, are you were prescribed opioids.
Veterans with PTSD were also more likely that the
remainder to receive the medical indication to take several opioids to
the time, receive higher doses of drugs and get
recipes early to replace the drugs used, said
team in Journal of the American Medical Association.
Those treated with opioids had double the risk that
veterans not using those painkillers from a
injury, an overdose of drugs or alcohol, or self-harm.
For Seal, they are prescribing opioids to too many
veterans, rather than tell them sessions of psychotherapy and
another type of pain treatment.
The study “obliged to pay more attention to the challenge of
“
meet the care of veterans with pain pain and
“
chronic diseases, especially with PTSD”, said Robert Kerns,
director of the national programme for the management of pain of the
The Veterans Health Administration and Yale psychologist
University, New Haven.
Kerns, who did not participate in the study, coincided in the
importance of developing new approaches to the management of the
pain.
Seal, meanwhile, recommended that veterans and their families
consider the idea of using psychotherapy and other types of
assistance to treat mental health problems.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, online
6 March 2012.
