Last week, I attended a most excellent presentation by Dr. Boone from La Hacienda Treatment center on “Addiction and Medications.” Dr. Boone was an engaging, informative and provocative speaker on topics including Pain, Anxiety, Insomnia, Anxiety, Colds, ADHD & Weight Loss. I will try and summarize some of his main points in this blog post related to addiction and pain management.
If you know someone with chronic pain who is not able to manage their pain and possibly addicted to painkillers, this information may be helpful. There are alternatives and help to manage pain, but not without learning new skills and acquiring proven techniques, which take time to develop and master.
Pain is a subjective experience and everyone has a different pain tolerance. As Dr. Boone pointed out, and I paraphrase, we need to move away from an “I feel……….I take………” mentality as patients to just use our doctors or medications to manage physical AND emotional pain. Instead of the medical model of “I feel……I take…….” we move to adopt the “I feel…….I relax, meditate, stretch, do yoga, get acupuncture, manage my stress, do psychotherapy (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT), physical therapy, massage, hypnosis, imagery and biofeedback” to manage chronic pain without addictive medications. Pain encompasses various states of discomfort including anxiety, depression, insomnia, stress with complications of increasing dependence on addictive pain medications. Therefore, pain tolerance and sensitivity actually increases with the use of pain medication. Subsequently, a condition known as “hyperalgesia”, or hypersensitivity to pain develops. Keeping pain medicated “coats the pain” and actually creates a lowered pain threshold due to the fact that the body no longer produces beta endorphins to manage pain naturally. The body and mind lose the ability to get relief. Pain signals persist and suffering increases. One objective is to break the pain cycle and close the pain gate sending the signal to the brain.
Addiction is also associated with a lack of stress resistance. When pain persists, most people seek immediate relief. Medication accomplishes this…..but only in the beginning. After a short time, tolerance to the medication develops, so you need more pain medication to get relief. Ultimately, no amount of pain medication really helps and by this time, addiction, tolerance sets in.
A multidisciplinary team with alternative pain management is considered most effective. The best chronic pain treatment programs all strive to reduce and then eliminate the use of all narcotic medications and muscle relaxers, which are addictive and shut down the body’s natural ability to manage pain. Examples of medications that should eliminated are opiates like Hydrocodone, Codeine, Oxycodone, Morphine, Tramadol, Lyrica and muscle relaxants like Soma and Flexeril.
There are pain programs and specialists that can help. Call or email if you want additional information. 713-621-2490 or click on my name to email for questions of comments. Dr. Klaybor
