Author: Admin (---.gtecablemodem.com)
Date: 03-16-02 13:04
No sooner had Cher reported that she was being treated for pain in Australia with slow release morphine tablets, than a Press Release crossed my desk from the American Pain Society, which has now endorsed opioids for the treatment of severe pain resulting from arthritis.
Read the Press Release at:
"American Pain Society Releases New Clinical Guideline For Treatment Of Arthritis Pain"
http://www.ampainsoc.org/whatsnew/031502.htm
Both of the major medical organizations dealing with pain have also agreed on joint guidelines for the use of Opioids in Chronic Pain:
"The Use of Opioids for the Treatment of Chronic Pain"
http://www.ampainsoc.org/advocacy/opioids.htm
This document also details how many of the fears associated with the use of opioids have now been put to rest by a decade of their use in treating AIDS patients.
There is a risk of addiction if these drugs are misused, or if you become dependent on them to relieve pain. If anybody is interested in discussing addiction, please start a new thread on that topic - it is an interesting one because many drugs, and particularly prednisone, can create the physical and mental dependancy that we call 'addiction'.
You will note that neither methotrexate and prednisone are on the recommended list of treatments for arthrititic or RA pain. These drugs are (slowly) disappearing from the recommended treatment regimes in most of the Continuing Education that I read. So, if you have tried Vioxx and Celebrex and they have failed to ease your arthritic pain I suggest that you print off these guidelines and discuss opioids with your doctor(s).
..Trevor..
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