Dependence or Addiction??

Subject: Dependence or Addiction?? Sun 20 Mar 2011, 10:34 am

Am I Addicted to Prescription Pain Pills?

There’s so much confusion about the differences between the disease of addiction to opioid pain pills and mere physical dependency on pain pills. Even some doctors don’t understand the differences, regretfully. Any person who regularly takes opioid pain pills for a period of weeks to months, for whatever reason, will develop a physical dependency to these drugs. That’s a biologic event. But addiction is much more than just the physical process. With addiction, there’s also a psychological component. People with addiction think about the drug often, spend time using and recovering from the drug, and continue to use the drug even though bad things happen. In physical dependency alone, this doesn’t happen.

Here are a few specific questions that I ask patients, that help me decide if they have the disease of addiction:

Do I take more medication than prescribed? Do I take early doses, or extra doses?
Do I take medication in ways it’s not intended? For example, do I snort it, or chew it for faster onset? Do I inject it?
Do I get medication from friends, family, or acquaintances because I run out of my prescription pills early?
Do I become intoxicated, or high, from my medication? Without telling my doctor?
Do I drink alcohol with medication, even though the pharmacist advised against this?
Do I look forward to my next dose of medication?
Do I get impaired from my medication, to the point I’m unable to function normally?
Do I take pain medication to treat bad moods, anxiety, or to get to sleep?
Do I use street drugs like cocaine, marijuana, or others?
Have I driven when under the influence of pills, when I know I shouldn’t be driving?
Do I get prescriptions from more than one doctor, without telling them about each other?
Do I spend a great deal of time worrying about running out of medication?
Do I spend a great deal of time thinking about my medication, and how it makes me feel?

One “yes” answer to any of these questions is worrisome, though not necessarily diagnostic of addiction. I think of addiction as a continuum, and it’s easier to diagnose with multiple “yes” answers. For example, people taking prescriptions may have a few worrisome symptoms, like taking an extra pill occasionally. Perhaps they did this because of a temporary increase in pain. Without any other symptoms, I probably wouldn’t diagnose addiction. At the other end of the spectrum, if a patient is crushing pills to inject or snort, I feel confident making the diagnosis of addiction.

Sometimes addiction only becomes apparent over time. This is why doctors need to see patients frequently who are prescribed potentially addicting medication, like pain pill, stimulant, and benzodiazepines.

If you had one or more “yes” answers to the above questions, please see a doctor who knows something about addiction, because untreated addiction usually gets worse. In fact, it can even be fatal.

Source:
The blog of Jana Burson. For more click below
Jana Burson

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