Understanding Opioids, Addiction and Naloxone

April 17, 2017 / Thomas Cohn, MD

Chronic pain patients have a multitude of possible treatments available for the management of symptoms. Strategies often include exercise, physical therapy, chiropractic care, massage, injections and medications. One of the more frowned upon treatments is opioids, but sometimes they are used successfully. With the current opioid crisis, many pain patients fear using them and want to be safe if they have them in their possession.

Opioid Safety

The most important rule with regards to use of any medication, especially opioids, is to never take more than what has been prescribed. Opioids can build up in the body and suddenly become deadly if too much is taken. Running out early can cause opioid withdrawal syndrome and while it is uncomfortable, it is not dangerous to your health. If you are taking opioids, expect your doctor to closely monitor your medication and behavior while taking these drugs. Since they are highly addictive and abused, most doctors will tightly control prescriptions and refills. Drug testing, opioid contracts, behavior screenings, depression screenings and monitoring of other medications are standard. Mixing of medications like sedatives, anti-anxiety treatments like benzodiazepines, and using any street drugs often will lead to ending a prescriptions for opioids, and often there is zero tolerance of any safety rules due to the extreme danger inherent with opioid misuse.

Mixing Street Drugs and Opioids

The latest step in opioid safety is the prescribing of naloxone in addition to the opioid. Naloxone is a drug that can block the opioid receptors for most opioid-type drugs, and it can prevent an accidental or purposeful overdose. In Minnesota it can be obtained at most pharmacies even without a prescription, and can be given effectively as either an injection or as an intranasal spray. Anyone who is routinely taking an opioid or has opioid medications in the home should likely have naloxone too, in case they accidentally or purposefully take too much, or someone else takes their medications. If you are on these medications, ask your doctor about having a safety prescription for naloxone.

Using street drugs for an addiction to opioids or for pain is high-risk behavior. The singer Prince was using Percocet obtained from street sources to control his hip joint pain. The Percocet he obtained had allegedly been mixed with fentanyl, which is an extremely potent opioid and caused his overdose death. If you are addicted to opioids, are using them to get high, use heroin, or have family or friends that is misusing opioids, you can obtain naloxone and this may save someone from an overdose death.

Successful Opioid Treatment

Opioids can be helpful in treating pain, but they are extremely difficult to use due their limited safety. More physicians are very reluctant to prescribe these medications and their long-term efficacy and safety is limited. More information has become available on how opioids actually tend to increase pain over time versus being helpful. Pain management specialists will work with patients to find alternative strategies to these dangerous medications.

One last issue with regards to all medications, especially opioids, is how to dispose of unused or outdated prescriptions. In the past, medications were often flushed down the toilet or thrown out in the trash. The environment does not do well with those methods, and it tends to lead to contamination of our waterways and ground water. Freshwater fish are starting to show significant levels of some commonly disposed medications. The best way to get rid of unwanted medications is to bring them to your local police or sheriff’s department where they have disposal lock boxes. These medications then are handled as hazardous waste and usually incinerated at high temperatures to completely destroy them and turn it to relatively safe ash.

If you’re struggling with an opioid addiction or want a doctor to help get to the bottom of your pain, contact Dr. Cohn today.

Minnesota Medical Marijuana System Tough On Chronic Pain Patients

April 7, 2017 / Thomas Cohn, MD

One of the approved conditions for medical marijuana in the state of Minnesota is intractable pain. Intractable pain is pain that can’t easily be tracked to a specific source and treated successfully, and many patients with chronic pain are deemed to have intractable pain. So you’d think the medical marijuana program in Minnesota would be beneficial for chronic pain sufferers? Well, according to a recent article in the Star-Tribune, it’s anything but easy.

Jumping Through Hoops

Minnesota is at least moderately progressive in that it allows medical marijuana as a treatment option for some conditions, but there are still a number of issues with the current state of the program. For starters, the majority of doctors in Minnesota – including those who specialize in treating chronic pain – are not approved to certify patients for the medical marijuana program. The reason being is that the health care system employers prohibit these doctors from prescribing it. Some doctors who treat rare and severe illnesses can prescribe the treatment, but the vast majority cannot.

So, most doctors are unable to prescribe it. You’d think the state would compile a list of doctors that could prescribe medical marijuana to those who qualify, but no state-provided list exists. Instead, patients need to search the web, call clinics and try to track down a doctor who can prescribe the treatment on their own.

Footing The Bill

Once you’ve tracked down a doctor and had your medical records faxed over to the clinic, you finally get to meet with a specialist who can prescribe medical marijuana. But, according to the Star-Tribune columnist who sought medical marijuana for her pain, since the appointment was for medical marijuana certification, her insurance wouldn’t cover it. So the $844 bill for the 90-minute session would come out of her pocket.

If she would be approved by the state, she’d have to pay a certification fee. That runs $200, and it needs to be renewed each and every year. Moreover, after you pay your certification fee, your treatment needs to be approved by the state. If you are approved, you then have to fill out a Patient Self-Evaluation Form. Finally, after that is approved, you can visit a Cannabis Patient Center, where any purchases once again aren’t covered by insurance, so you’re paying out of pocket. Oh, and forget writing it off as a medical expense, as medical marijuana is not legal under federal law, so the expenses can’t be written off.

The author detailed how she would need to return to the clinic four weeks after receiving the medical marijuana for a follow-up appointment that again would not be covered by insurance (and again at six months). In all, she estimated that her start up costs would fall just short of $2,000 just to get into the program – and that’s without purchasing any medical marijuana.

There are good intentions behind the legalization of medical marijuana in Minnesota, but the program currently has many faults. These patients who are in incredible pain are repeatedly being asked to jump through hoops and open their wallets just with the hope that they can get in the program and find a solution for their pain. The current system is broken, and while we’d like to see more money being poured into medical marijuana research to ensure we increase treatment effectiveness, we can’t expect the solutions to happen on their own. We need to revamp the process for getting medical marijuana for patients with intractable pain.

The Benefits and Drawbacks Of Medical Marijuana

March 20, 2017March 20, 2017 / Thomas Cohn, MD

Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine did a comprehensive review of the information available on the use of marijuana. The study looked at research published since 1999, and they came up with a number of conclusions. One of the most important findings is the current lack of good scientific information on marijuana. There is a clear need for good scientific research to guide healthcare professionals on the risks and benefits associated with marijuana use. Currently, to study marijuana or any of its derivatives, the federal bureaucratic hoops one must go through makes it extremely difficult to perform. The information available and the quality of the research at this point are limited. The conclusions are based mostly upon case report studies with limited controls.

The Complexity of THC and Marijuana

In Minnesota, medical marijuana is available to treat several specific conditions, and this year chronic pain was added to the list of approved conditions. The recent study also supports the idea that marijuana may be helpful to treat some people with chronic pain. For some it seems the non-THC (THC is the component that is responsible for the “high”) may help for pain. Since there are multiple causes of pain, it definitely is not indicated for everyone. Further, no studies have been done to determine what types of pain may be helped by components of marijuana, and it is not clear which of the 80 or more different compounds in marijuana are helpful. It is also known to be helpful for nausea from chemotherapy, and spasticity in multiple sclerosis. Marijuana may help in appetite with HIV, and there is limited evidence for help with bowel disorders, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease.

Potential Drawbacks

There are multiple potential harms that may be caused by marijuana. There is strong evidence that its use can lead to schizophrenia and psychosis, especially among young and frequent users. It may also lead to depressive disorders. The claim that it can make you a better driver is simply false, as statistics have shown that it leads to inattentive driving, a main contributor to traffic accidents. In pregnancy, use can lead to low birth weight in infants. Smoking pot can also cause and worsen any respiratory condition. There is weak evidence that smoking marijuana can increase the risk of heart attacks. One can also develop an addiction to marijuana. Conclusions cannot be drawn with regards to school achievement, unemployment, or social function and marijuana use.

Understanding It All

The overall scientific conclusion so far is that marijuana may have some reasonable medical uses. However, the scientific research on the compound is extremely limited at the moment. In the United States, it has been classified as a compound with no medical value and harmful to society. What needs to happen is that national legislation is needed to reclassify marijuana as a controlled substance, then good medical research can be done to determine what compounds in this plant are helpful or harmful. Once good research is done, then the use of compounds can occur with everyone understanding appropriate risks and benefits like with any other drug now available.

Why Doctors Should Be Listening To Their Patients, Not Relying On Scans

March 13, 2017 / Thomas Cohn, MD

The world is a fast-paced environment. No one has time for anything anymore. In medicine, there is constant pressure to see more patients and do more electronic paperwork, and productivity is a key guidepost to life. However, slowing down and spending a few minutes listening to the world around you and to patients may actually be more rewarding, and solve more problems.

Listening To Your Patients

Being an older physician, technology was just beginning to influence medicine when I began training. CT scans were just starting to become available at the beginning of my training, and MRI scans were not available until I was in practice for a few years. The hallmark of a good physician was their ability to make a diagnosis based on a patient’s history, a physical exam, and some basic testing. The patient encounter was the critical event, as was at getting the story.

Most of the time, if one listens to the complaint of a patient closely, the diagnosis of the problem becomes much more clear. The physical exam is also critical; this is especially important since high technology studies like MRI scans often find problems that are not the cause of a patient’s symptoms. Going old school and using the technology as an assistant and not depending on it often leads to a better treatment plan for a patient.

Treatment and Listening

There are many different styles of physician practice. Being in the field of pain management, one can use multiple approaches to the same problem. One common approach for low back pain is that everyone needs to have every structure in the low back injected with steroid. Another style is that the only treatment that is needed is a course of extreme physical therapy. The approach that seems to be the most effective is take a good history, do an exam of the patient and then decide what is wrong and needed. Most of the time, it will yield a more precise course of action.

Multiple times I have found that an MRI may show multiple significant looking issues, but the history and exam show no correlated problems that would warrant treatment. The body can adapt to multiple things seen on a scan and not have any problems. Treating a scan versus treating a person can be the absolute wrong thing. Furthermore, most problems can be treated in a number of ways, and the choice is often dependent on the approach the patient wants once they understand the options available.

Listening and examining a patient may be considered old fashioned. As a new physician it is often hard to understand the subtle things a patient is trying to convey. Sending a patient for tests and treating the tests is far easier. As an older physician, a lot of the stories become very classic, as is the exam. For example, spinal stenosis in the elderly has a unique story of pain when walking a few feet and being just fine when sitting or lying down. The story tells more in a few words then the MRI and then the treatment is absolutely defined by what the patient desires. Being old fashioned and listening is not glamorous, but it often is a more effective way to get the job done right.

Why Difficulty Sleeping Is Like Living With Chronic Pain

March 6, 2017April 20, 2017 / Thomas Cohn, MD

Chronic and acute pain often interferes with sleep. Since a third of our lives are spent sleeping or trying to sleep, having an issue getting good sleep can be a major issue. There are many problems that interfere with sleep, and many pain patients have difficulty sleeping. Sleep is similar to pain, in that it is a complex process, and many things can affect our sleep. Sometimes the solution to better sleep is simple, but more often the problem and solutions are complex.

Why Recent Guidelines on Sleep Fall Short

The latest issue of JAMA came in the mail today and had two articles related to sleep. The first was on chronic insomnia and the new guidelines for its management. The second article was on restless leg syndrome (RLS). The “guidelines” were put out by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and written by primary care physicians and health care administrators. To be valuable, guidelines really need to be written by experts in the field of the guideline, and sleep specialists can be credentialed in Neurology and Internal Medicine with a specialty of Respiratory Medicine. These experts were not the ones to write these guidelines. If a patient wants only entry level advice on sleep, these may be okay, but for those suffering from chronic sleep issues, consulting an expert would serve most patients significantly better. It is shame that leading national organizations like the ACP and JAMA publish minimally useful information.

Since I have been in practice for a number of years, learning some some of the basic treatment options to improve sleep is not difficult. If a patient is having difficulty sleeping, always start with a good history and physical exam. The history often tells significant information with regards to the nature of the sleep problem. Treating sleep is usually more complex than guessing the right medications. The most important first step is good habits prior to going to sleep. The easy things involve reducing caffeine intake, especially in the afternoons and do not drink it at night. Alcohol also does not help with sleep; it often will wake one up in the middle of the night. Technology is also a horrible actor; the blue light of cellphones and computers as well as television will stimulate people and prevent sleep. Lastly, do not exercise vigorously in the evenings; this also wakes up most people.

Solving Sleep Problems

If a person has addressed the simple sleep issues and they are still having sleep problems, then finding a solution will often require some expert intervention. Since there are many problems that affect sleep, obtaining a medical sleep consult by a specialist is worthwhile. Problems like sleep apnea are often an issue. Finding medical problems that need management can reduce interference with sleep. If nothing is found to be a problem by an expert, then solutions to what seems to be reducing sleep can be initiated. Many people cannot relax enough to go to sleep, and psychological based treatments like mindfulness or cognitive behavioral therapy are indicated. Few patients may need some sort of medications, but these need to be closely monitored for side effects.

Most experts have not found that a particular type of bed or pillow makes any significant difference. If I am asked about whether a person should buy a new bed, it is probably only necessary if the current one is totally broken. Pillows are really a matter of personal preference, but they need to keep the neck in a neutral spine position. Usually spending lots of money on beds and pillows is not a good solution for improved sleep.

The patient with chronic pain is often no different from any other patient with sleep difficulties. Correct the simple things with regards to sleep hygiene first. If a person continues to have sleep problems, they should see a sleep specialist who can often help find the most appropriate intervention. Expensive beds and pillows are not usually a good investment. If you need a new bed, buy either a bed with a memory foam type top, or an air adjustable bed so the firmness can be adjusted depending on how you feel. Beds with adjustable frames that raise the head are sometimes good for those with breathing problems at night. Most importantly, good sleep hygiene is the first issue to solve, and if the problems persist, ask to see a sleep expert.