Dr Gerald M Sacks Explains How Patients End Up Getting Addicted to Opioids

1. Dr Gerald M Sacks Explains How Patients End Up Getting Addicted to Opioids Dr Gerald M Sacks, Director of Pain Management at the Pain Institute of Santa Monica, explains how opioid addiction has become a crisis in America. He states that patients initially start taking these opioids as part of their prescription but end up getting addicted to them. This addiction changes them medically, biochemically, in every way. He explains that the normal course for opioids is a week to 10 days. However, if somebody intakes these opioids beyond this period, it is quite unusual. A while ago, Dr Sacks talked to a woman who had been abusing painkillers for years. Her kids were convinced that their mother would die if she did not stop taking them. Besides, she acknowledged that although she might be dependent on opioids, she is not an addict. The woman told that she needed medication due to her chronic illness and complications from multiple surgeries that had left her weak, malnourished, and unable to walk without assistance.

2. She could do anything to get rid of her horrible pain and this made her to be dependent on these opioids. Dr Gerald M Sacks acknowledged her condition and made a point that the pain was subjective and needed to be managed by a pain specialist. Furthermore, Dr Sacks opines that there is a major unmet need in the management of Opioid-Induced Constipation. He feels that various health care professionals do not have the knowledge base to effectively discuss OIC with their patients who are being prescribed opioids. Quite assertive to his point, Dr Gerald M Sacks concludes that the practitioners need to be comfortable discussing the adverse effects of any medications being prescribed to them, and also their potential adverse effects.