Due to change in change in medical and social sensibility, we prescribe addictive painkillers as if we are giving out candy at a children’s party for the patients. The place where I work, I see patients with severe and incapacitating back pain, skipping up the stairs and returning with their prescriptions for the strongest analgesics to treat their supposed pain. The second reason is because of the prescription of addictive analgesics, even to those patients whom the doctor knows or suspects to be abusing them, is economic.
I remember that when I refused to prescribe either strong painkillers or other addictive drugs such as benzodiazepines, some of the patients would insist me to prescribe them. Considering the above scenario, are we really turning patients into drug addicts?
