Any one in America who needs chronic pain relief is considered a suspect for drug abuse. In the eyes of the government they are all potential criminals.

Which is one of the reasons chronic pain is severely under treated in America.

The neglect is criminal.

My daughter has a chronic back injury - a pinched nerve - sustained while she was on active duty and going through combat refresher training. She collided at a dead run with another Marine, both of them in full gear - and the other Marine was one of those foot-ball playing, 6 foot plus guys. It is usually not so bad that she needs pain meds. But the thing is, that a lot of what service members do as a matter of course is so physically challenging, that military service over time will eventually damage a body permanently (jumping from perfectly good airplanes, running miles in full gear, etc)- even if direct combat isn't involved.

Sgt. Mom, I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's injury and resultant pain, and I think the important thing to remember is that however it is treated is a matter between your daughter and her doctors.

I see this as a three-pronged assault against soldiers wounded or injured in the service of their country; against the rights of all patients to be pain-free; and against a doctor's sacrosanct obligation to practice medicine by looking out for the best interest of his patient.

I suspect we are going to see a lot more second-guessing of doctors by the government. My dad was a doctor and he's lucky he didn't live to see it.

I have an extremely difficult time believing that one-quarter of Americans are in actual chronic pain. I do not have difficulty believing that one-quarter of veterans are, although even that does not seem to be the case. And while I agree with you wholeheartedly that what pain medications a patient needs should be between the patient and his or her doctor, I simply do not believe that all patients who allgedly experience chronic pain need chronic meds. Call me a doubting Thomas, but I kind of think Americans--not soldiers, who are probably likely to underreport chronic pain--are just whiners. If all the estimates of how many people are in chronic pain or suffer from the kind of mental problem--depression, ADHD, whatever--that "needs" medication were true, we would probably cease to function as a people, because we would all be disabled by our pain and suffering.

Admittedly, I also don't really think pain is inherently bad, and I don't think anyone has a "right" to be pain-free. I don't even know how such a right would be supportable. I'm all for giving soldiers anything and everything they need, but for normal office workers who get sciatica from sitting too much, man, just get up and walk. (for example...I KNOW that not everyone who "suffers from chronic pain" has sciatica)

That's unbelievabile.
You're exactly right about the "against a doctor' sacrosanct obligation..." part, if they're counting prescriptions or doses and implying it's drug addiction, that's doctor approved drub abuse, he's calling them criminals.

Webb says, "I would really like to dig down in the data here and get their thoughts about what is driving this."

I'll field that one there Mr. Combat Expert Senator.
We keep so many more of our troops alive than we used to so many of them were mostly dead at some point and that takes a long time to fix, Miracle Max retired.

When they can sew your guts back together (with a few, damaged, pieces left over), reattach an arm, remove what's left of a leg and attach a prosthetic, set multiple fractures in any bone, including the pelvis, ribs and skull while taking out damaged pieces and bits of metal, uniform and whatnot and putting in and taking out pins, ribs, staples and whatever else they use, well, that's painfile and takes a long time.

Sir.

The USA Today article referenced here is an example of agenda-driven journalism compounded by craven political opportunism. The underlining premise is that readers are mushy-minded dolts who will be seduced my this meme into knee jerk antipathy toward military physicians and compassionate empathy for drug addled victim soldiers. My how far we have sunk as a society.

Julie -- while I do agree with you that there is no right to be pain free, it seems you think pain and suffering are GOOD and build character. At least that's what I'm getting from your comment.

And... that's bullshit.

I also suspect you have no idea what sciatica is or how it happens. If merely walking could cure it, how about allowing some pain medication to actually accomplish that walking?

One thing is for certain and that is that the military has much better data on who is being prescribed pain medication for what than is available from the general public.

And I can verify that they keep strict tabs on any medication that is considered addictive, from Lortab to Klonopin to Ambien. While the military will fill those prescriptions, I wish anyone (especially someone on active duty) good luck getting a prescription for them from a military physician.

What is truly sad is that sometimes pain becomes chronic pain because it is not treated when it is acute. There's this Puritanesque thinking (as noted above) that one should just suffer through it and furthermore that they will be a "better" person if they do.

Perhaps it is a fine line, but there is a difference between needing something and being addicted to something.

Since the post pissed me off in one direction and Julie's comment pissed me off in another, it's quite likely this comment of mine makes no sense.

But hey... what the hell.

Well, Donna--I don't know what to tell you except you're reading things into my comment that aren't there.

And I do know what sciatica is. I even know where the sciatic nerve is. I've had sciatica. It comes back once in a while if I'm not getting enough exercise. Rather than take medication, I move my ass. Sometimes it takes a few days for the pain to subside. I take Motrin if it hurts so bad that I have trouble walking. It doesn't "build character" but why use a bomb when a bullet will do? I suspect that if the American lifestyle weren't so completely effed, we'd have a lot fewer people suffering from "chronic pain" and "depression," not to mention diabetes (sometimes a source of acute-on-chronic and chronic pain). That doesn't have much to do with soldiers, who take a lot of risks but lack of exercise is usually not one of them.

I shall repeat: I understand that not all chronic pain is due to sciatica (or any other easily cured condition) and I fully support giving whatever medication soldiers need to get well, and I also agree that the government should not be interfering in what goes down between doctors and patients. As for what you read into what I posted earlier, I don't really know where you got most of that.

What is in the first comment and further explained in the second, is that you are basing your view of chronic pain on pain that you experience.

Whether you intend to intend to or not, what you are implying about people you don't "believe" are really suffering pain, is that whatever they suffer is their own fault.

That thinking is closely related to the thinking that maladies are God's punishment for sins. It's based on a serious misunderstanding of the actual causes of diseases like diabetes -- which can result from several combinations of lots of things, being overweight is only one. Being inactive is another. Both of those things are associated with hypoglycemia also.

Julie,

Would you perhaps explain why you appear to believe that everyone except you is such a drug-addicted hypochondriac that they shouldn't have access to pain medication? ("Call me a doubting Thomas, but I kind of think Americans--not soldiers, who are probably likely to underreport chronic pain--are just whiners.")

On precisely what basis do you make this judgment? Your own virtue in getting up and moving around when you're in pain? Other people not doing what you believe they should be doing?

As for diseases like diabetes, let me add in a few data points. There is evidence that adult-onset is in part auto-immune. Yes, that's right. For some people diabetes is not a "lifestyle disease". Obesity also has many causes. Narcolepsy, for one - something I happen to know personally - is also an auto-immune disorder, and almost always causes obesity, depression, and often diabetes. Multiple sclerosis is another auto-immune disorder, that - gosh! - can cause chronic pain. All of these are "invisible" if well controlled or in the early stages, and all of them can cause chronic pain.

How about instead of just assuming that most of the people who take painkillers on any kind of regular basis are "whiners" you consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, these are people who DO have chronic pain issues and are just like you in preferring not to use the painkilling drugs unless they absolutely have to.

OK, I don't believe in any "right" to be free from pain in the legal sense, so perhaps I shouldn't have used the word. Besides, being "pain free" is impossible. However, patients as consumers of medical care have a moral right to expect that their doctors will ameliorate their pain to the best of their abilities. Just as if you go to a hair stylist, you have the "right" to expect a decent haircut.

What just galls me is that idea that outside limits are being placed on the doctor-patient relationship which would limit the amount of pain relief based not on the patient's symptoms or doctor's judgment, but on a statistical public policy determination that cutting back on certain medications will decrease drug abuse.

In other words, because some people abuse drugs, some patients won't receive adequate pain relief!

It's unconscionable and outrageous.

Whether I suffer from pain, and how much pain I should have to endure are personal medical questions between me and my doctor. There are psychological and perhaps moral issues as well; some people are "weaker" than others. So what? For the government to enter into the equation is tyranny.

Not only are they comparing the wrong things, they are comparing doses in 2001 - when we were not involved in any large scale conflict - and prescriptions now.

This is just like the NYT hit-piece in '05 I think that said violence among veterans back home is increasing, even though the NYT's own research showed that per capital violence was still much much lower than the general population, they did not tell you that though.

What makes me even angier is these peices are carefully written to sound like they are "sympathetic to the plight" of veterans and combat soldiers. They are basically saying "it's not their fault they are psychotic violent drug abusers."