Pain Management Not the Same as Addiction

By Marvin Ross, Guest Columnist

It's bad enough that mental illness is, for some strange reason, paired with addiction. But now the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) wants to include pain management as part of its “National Pain and Addictions Strategy.”

Addiction is a terrible affliction for the person addicted, for their family and for society. Of that, there is no question. But it is now considered a mental illness and I have no idea why. As I wrote once before, “Addictions at some point involve choice. You made a decision to go into a bar and start drinking or to snort coke, take opioids or inject heroin. No one has a choice to become schizophrenic, bipolar, depressed or any other serious mental illness. There is no choice involved whatsoever.” 

I also cited smoking, which most people of my generation did and most of us quit. I smoked two  packs a day and quit because my wife has asthma and was pregnant. I was motivated.

I also pointed out that during the Vietnam War, 40% of troops used heroin and the government was fearful of what would happen when they came back. Fortunately for all, 95% of those troops gave up heroin without any intervention whatsoever. They were no longer in a dangerous war zone trying to escape anyway they could.

Chronic pain patients are generally neither addicts nor mentally ill. What they are addicted to is being as pain free as they can be. Chronic pain results from any number of valid medical conditions, severe trauma and/or botched surgical procedures. For many, opioid medication is necessary to have any quality of life.

But CMHA sees opioid prescribing as an inevitable bridge to addiction:

“CMHA is currently collaborating with research partners to explore the efficacy of multidisciplinary care teams and their role in pain management and opioid tapering. CMHA also believes that creating a National Pain Strategy that includes addictions would allow for more effective training and would better prepare physicians and primary care providers to treat pain in Canada.”

CMHA is correct when they say that pain is poorly managed in Canada and not well understood. But what expertise do they have to make recommendations on how pain should be treated? Their primary recommendation is that we should find alternatives to opiates. And, if we must give patients opiates, there should be an exit strategy, so they do not take them for too long.

This is based on the false assumption that addiction is being fueled by those with chronic pain, even though overdose deaths in Canada are predominantly among males aged 30-39 and involve illicit fentanyl. Contrast that to the demographics of chronic pain, which is mostly seen in women and older adults over the age of 56.

Those are two totally separate populations!

If opioid medication is a contributor to this problem, then why did opioid prescriptions in Canada decline by over 10% between 2016 and 2017, while opioid overdose deaths rose by 45% over the same period? 

The CMHA calls for an increase in alternative therapies to treat chronic pain. This is the definition of alternative medicine from the New England Journal of Medicine:

“There cannot be two kinds of medicine -- conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted. But assertions, speculation, and testimonials do not substitute for evidence. Alternative treatments should be subjected to scientific testing no less rigorous than that required for conventional treatments.”

Opioids work for chronic pain, as found in a 2010 Cochrane Review and by a more recent review in the Journal of Pain Research.

Jason Busse, the chiropractor who helped draft Canada’s 2017 opioid guideline, told me in a Twitter debate that this second study was only for 3 months so it is not relevant for the long term use of opioids. However, Prozac was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after two clinical trials of 6 and 8 weeks duration. Many people use Prozac for years.

Neither chiropractic, massage or acupuncture have been shown to be effective for chronic pain. Many doctors are also pushing anti-epilepsy drugs like gabapentin (Neurontin) as an alternative to opioids, but they do not always work and have major side effects. The same is true for its sister drug, pregabalin (Lyrica).

There is some evidence that medical cannabis may help with chronic pain, but it is very expensive and, even when prescribed, is not covered by public or most health plans.

Members of my family suffer with chronic pain and they do not want a National Pain and Addictions Strategy. What they want is continued access to the pain medication that has helped them carry on as normal a life as possible. There is no euphoria when they take these meds, other than the euphoria that comes from reducing their pain levels sufficiently so they can enjoy a trip to the cinema, theatre, dinner with friends and whatever else gives pleasure.

In June, I attended a meeting in Oshawa, Ontario arranged by chronic pain patients with a representative of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. About 30 pain patients attended from all over Ontario and told the doctor how much they were being forced to suffer because their medication was reduced. One woman said she is not capable of getting out of bed to care for her children and would consider suicide if it weren't for them. Similar comments were made by others, but the doctor was unmoved and left early.

If CMHA (and others) can call for decriminalizing drugs and providing the addicted with safe drugs, why can no one be willing to provide pain patients with the same? It is inhumane.

Marvin Ross is a medical writer and publisher in Dundas, Ontario. He has been writing on chronic pain for the past year and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

Pain News Network invites other readers to share their stories with us. Send them to editor@painnewsnetwork.org.

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.