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CNN - ANDERSON COOPER 9PM EST "PRESCRIPTION ADDICTION"


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I really hope a link will be made available for those of us who can't watch it on TV. I bet the focus will be opioids, but I really hope they cover benzos too.
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I really hope a link will be made available for those of us who can't watch it on TV. I bet the focus will be opioids, but I really hope they cover benzos too.

 

With the recent death of Prince, my guess is that it will be too. :o

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I really hope a link will be made available for those of us who can't watch it on TV. I bet the focus will be opioids, but I really hope they cover benzos too.

 

Please do let us know.  Satellite is off for the summer.  Thanks!

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Focus was on opioids....addiction...no mention of how to properly help people already dependant get off these drugs. Made the patients the bad guys, once again....saaad
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You mean there was no mention of the doctor's role in prescribing the stuff in the first place? Or of the pharmaceutical companies' roles in misinforming the doctors?
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Focus was on opioids....addiction...no mention of how to properly help people already dependant get off these drugs. Made the patients the bad guys, once again....saaad

i

That was my take also. I have no idea why opiates get all the publicity (maybe more deaths I guess) but benzos get very little attention. I've ct'd opiates many times and it is a piece of cake compared to this.

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Wow and how about dr. Drew...hes had more people die after going through his treatment center than I care to imagine...his track record alone should disqualify him from ever speaking as a so called expert. Gimme a break already...
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You mean there was no mention of the doctor's role in prescribing the stuff in the first place? Or of the pharmaceutical companies' roles in misinforming the doctors?

[/quote

 

 

nothing about pharmaceutical companies.  :-\ :-\

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Did I watch the same show?  I was actually surprised that the focus was as much on the fault of the doctors and pharmaceutical companies as it was.  And I was happy that benzos were even mentioned since it was clear to me from the get-go that the show would be about opioids.

 

Since I came off of both and am writing a book about it, I've followed BOTH epidemics and it's clear they are very much two separate deals to most people.  The emphasis on opioids, I believe, is because the overdose deaths are just OUT there and shocking.  The benzo crisis is more insidious.  People quietly killing themselves just doesn't get the same attention.

 

It's been interesting to me in gathering endorsements for my book how much easier to find docs to speak to the opioid side of it, but few willing to speak up about benzos.  My emerging theory is that many docs are dealing with patients addicted to opioids by OTHER doctors--surgeons, dentists etc. and so they don't have to accept responsibility and they can feel bad their patients are having such a tough time.  Not the case with benzos, where to admit the patient is in trouble is to open yourself to liability over the drugs you yourself prescribed.

 

In any case, I always want to take issue with folks who speak dismissively bout opioid withdrawal being a cakewalk, they know, they've done it blah blah blah.  Come on, if that were the case, why are so many people hopelessly addicted?  Please remember that some people apparently quit benzos without any trouble at all.  With opioids, it's more uniformly addicting.  All anybody has to do is take it for a few weeks and they will suffer when they have to quit.

 

A lot of people who talk about having come off of opioids many times seem to have histories of simply moving on to something else, so I never could find any solid stories about just how long it takes to be completely recovered from opioids if you were clean and didn't relapse.

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Wow and how about dr. Drew...hes had more people die after going through his treatment center than I care to imagine...his track record alone should disqualify him from ever speaking as a so called expert. Gimme a break already...

 

Drew was the ONLY one of the group that made a point of mentioning benzo's and how lethal they are in combination with opioids 

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Didn't watch the show.  Couldn't find the whole thing online yet, but here are a few short clips, have just started watching them ...

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/health/sanjay-gupta-prescription-addiction-doctors-must-lead/?iid=ob_lockedrail_bottomlarge

 

First clip, regarding "stigma of addiction", Sanjay Gupta claims, "It's a brain disease.  And I think if more doctors say that out loud, the more that stigma goes away". 

Good Lord, say what now?  Aaah, I suddenly feel so much less stigmatized knowing that I can blame this on my DSM psychiatric label.  :idiot:  ::)

 

 

 

You mean there was no mention of the doctor's role in prescribing the stuff in the first place? Or of the pharmaceutical companies' roles in misinforming the doctors?

 

Excerpt from the article ...

 

Who is at fault?

 

There is plenty of blame to go around. Drugs are cheaper than a multidisciplinary approach to treating pain, and cost savings are what insurance companies like to hear.

 

For decades, certain pharmaceutical companies misled the FDA about the risks of opioid dependence in an effort to sell more of the drugs, and three top executives from Purdue Pharma even pleaded guilty to those criminal charges.

 

Our federal government has created nearly insurmountable hurdles to studying other therapies such as medicinal marijuana, which has for years been used safely and effectively in other countries for chronic neuropathic pain, one of the most difficult types to treat.

 

Most of the blame, however, belongs on the shoulders of the American doctors themselves. I am a practicing neurosurgeon, and this is not an easy thing to acknowledge. The fact is, we have accepted the tall tales and Pollyannaish promises of what these medications could do for too long. As a community, we weren't skeptical enough. We didn't ask enough questions. We accepted flimsy scientific data as gospel and preached it to our patients in a chamber that echoed loudly for decades.

 

Even worse, too many doctors who didn't actually believe the hyperbole surrounding opioids doled out long-term prescriptions regardless, in the same way doctors write antibiotic prescriptions for viral illnesses. In both cases, they don't work. In both cases, they can cause colossal harm.

 

 

 

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Wow and how about dr. Drew...hes had more people die after going through his treatment center than I care to imagine...his track record alone should disqualify him from ever speaking as a so called expert. Gimme a break already...

 

Drew was the ONLY one of the group that made a point of mentioning benzo's and how lethal they are in combination with opioids

 

That's what I noticed too. He also mentioned the same thing when Whitney Houston overdosed. I have gathered he is VERY against benzodiazepine usage over the two week recommended limit.

 

i recorded the program. I want to re-watch the bit when benzos were mentioned by Drew. Why? Because I think he sorta implied that Anderson Cooper, besides having a personal experience with Percocet, is "familiar with"  Ambien. Did anyone else catch this?

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Yes I did and I thought Anderson was asking as to a specific benzo........not sure who said Ambien......was that Anderson as well? Then I think Drew corrected that and said Valium
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Yes I did and I thought Anderson was asking as to a specific benzo........not sure who said Ambien......was that Anderson as well? Then I think Drew corrected that and said Valium

 

Not sure. When I watch it again, I'll let you know. 😉

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Abcd...ahhaaa....your funny. I guess I should feel better too...knowing my brain disease will make this all go away... :smitten: :smitten:what a joke...  😋
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Abcd...ahhaaa....your funny. I guess I should feel better too...knowing my brain disease will make this all go away... :smitten: :smitten:what a joke...  😋

 

Don't get me going, Hope, I feel a rant coming on.

 

I find it just ever so nauseating.  How Gupta even says that with a straight face.  This "brain disease" BS was created by 9 or 10 people sitting in a room, throwing this "criteria" together, and then taking a vote on whether or not to include it in the DSM.  And just like that it becomes a mental "disease" and spreads like wild fire.  Just like ADHD, PTSD, Aspergers, etc.  Fact.  Look it up. 

 

Here.  From a Government website, the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH NIDA)

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/science-drug-abuse-addiction-basics

 

In the latest DSM, they even lumped together substance abuse and dependence, it's called "Substance Use Disorder".  ;D

 

"In 2013, APA updated the DSM, replacing the categories of substance abuse and substance dependence with a single category: substance use disorder. The symptoms associated with a substance use disorder fall into four major groupings: impaired control, social impairment, risky use, and pharmacological criteria (i.e., tolerance and withdrawal)".

 

 

And then there's this ...

 

The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction: The Basics

What is drug addiction?

Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain; they change its structure and how it works. These brain changes can be long lasting and can lead to many harmful, often self-destructive, behaviors.

 

 

Call me dumb but I don't even understand that description.  Which comes first?  Are they saying the compulsive drug seeking is due to having this chronic, relapsing brain disease?  Or does one only develop this brain disease afterwards "because drugs change the brain"? 

 

 

Now this is a useful read.  "Most Commonly Used Addictive Drugs".  Benzos made the list.

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/most-commonly-used-addictive-drugs

 

 

Anyhooo, hopeandfaith, yes, according to Sanjay Gupta, if anyone feels stigmatized about being an "addict" one need only blame it on their brain disease, and the stigma will go away.  Outta here now, lol.

 

 

:smitten:

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I do think Gupta tends to oversimplify somewhat. Until we can get an authority to speak to this intelligently Im afraid no real change is ever going to happen. What a shame, its actually an outrage  that it has not been brought to the forefront of the public opinion. I would never trust sanjay, drew or even the broadcasters. It seems their is an underlying problem in that they all point the finger elsewhere and make us  suffer even worse. When someone dies as a result of opiod overdose they say we need to do something. But death as a result of benzo or ad's is somehow glossed over as just sad. The person must have really been hurting. When in fact these drugs make people more likely to die and cause the symptoms they were initially seen for to be even worse. Isnt dying no matter how you slice it relevant to all?
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