thedrifter
10-22-08, 03:59 AM
Increase in painkillers for troops raises fears
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 19:50:48 EDT
WASHINGTON — Narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured U.S. troops have jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began, raising concerns about the drugs’ potential abuse and addiction, a leading Army pain expert said.
The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics and don’t manage pain with a complex array of treatments, said Army Col. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, director of the Acute Pain Service Management Initiative at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
By 2005, two years into the war, narcotic painkillers were the most abused drug in the military, according to a survey that year of 16,146 service members.
Among soldiers, 4 percent surveyed in 2005 admitted abusing prescription narcotics in the previous 30 days, with 10 percent doing so in the last 12 months. Researchers said the higher abuse figures might be due to respondents mistakenly referring to legal use of pain medication. A 2008 survey has not been released.
“You don’t have to throw narcotics at people to start managing pain,” said Buckenmaier, who pioneered technology that eases the pain of wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefield.
Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.
Related reading:
Prescription abuse hits Mo. unit hard
“The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs,” said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.
In response to six suicides and seven drug-related deaths among soldiers in Warrior Transition Units — created for the Army’s most severely wounded or injured — aggressive efforts are underway to manage prescription drugs, said Col. Paul Cordts, chief of health policy for the Army surgeon general. These include limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply and more closely monitoring drug use.
The Army and Marine Corps are testing new dispenser machines. Located in a barracks, the automated pill boxes emit drugs as needed and help track consumption, said Army Col. Ike Harper, pharmacy consultant to the surgeon general.
Pain is the most common complaint of nearly 350,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Robert Kerns, national program director for pain management. A study of VA health records estimates that nearly half of those patients suffer chronic pain, severe enough in about 30 percent of those cases to limit daily living.
The vast majority suffer orthopedic injuries from the wear and tear of long deployments, according to a VA study.
Congress this year directed the Pentagon to develop a plan to create a pain care initiative “in all health care facilities.”
Ellie
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 19:50:48 EDT
WASHINGTON — Narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured U.S. troops have jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began, raising concerns about the drugs’ potential abuse and addiction, a leading Army pain expert said.
The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics and don’t manage pain with a complex array of treatments, said Army Col. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, director of the Acute Pain Service Management Initiative at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
By 2005, two years into the war, narcotic painkillers were the most abused drug in the military, according to a survey that year of 16,146 service members.
Among soldiers, 4 percent surveyed in 2005 admitted abusing prescription narcotics in the previous 30 days, with 10 percent doing so in the last 12 months. Researchers said the higher abuse figures might be due to respondents mistakenly referring to legal use of pain medication. A 2008 survey has not been released.
“You don’t have to throw narcotics at people to start managing pain,” said Buckenmaier, who pioneered technology that eases the pain of wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefield.
Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.
Related reading:
Prescription abuse hits Mo. unit hard
“The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs,” said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.
In response to six suicides and seven drug-related deaths among soldiers in Warrior Transition Units — created for the Army’s most severely wounded or injured — aggressive efforts are underway to manage prescription drugs, said Col. Paul Cordts, chief of health policy for the Army surgeon general. These include limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply and more closely monitoring drug use.
The Army and Marine Corps are testing new dispenser machines. Located in a barracks, the automated pill boxes emit drugs as needed and help track consumption, said Army Col. Ike Harper, pharmacy consultant to the surgeon general.
Pain is the most common complaint of nearly 350,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Robert Kerns, national program director for pain management. A study of VA health records estimates that nearly half of those patients suffer chronic pain, severe enough in about 30 percent of those cases to limit daily living.
The vast majority suffer orthopedic injuries from the wear and tear of long deployments, according to a VA study.
Congress this year directed the Pentagon to develop a plan to create a pain care initiative “in all health care facilities.”
Ellie