The Opioid Risk Tool Has Been Weaponized Against Pain Patients

By Dr. Lynn Webster, PNN Columnist

I was surprised and deeply disappointed to learn this week that people have been denied opioid prescriptions due to their responses on the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT).

As a guest on the DPP Rally Talk Show with Claudia Merandi, I heard from a caller who told me that her doctor denied her an opioid prescription based on her ORT answers.

One particular answer seems to have caused the caller’s problem: She acknowledged her history of experiencing preadolescent sexual abuse. Apparently, the doctor used that as a reason to deny her access to opioid medication to treat her pain. This is a terrible misapplication of the tool.

The ORT is a self-assessment tool I developed and published about 15 years ago. It was developed at a time when we didn’t know the rate of opioid abuse in patients who were prescribed an opioid for noncancer pain. We needed a tool to help evaluate whether the risk of potential harm from opioids outweighed the good.

I never intended for doctors to use the ORT to determine who should or shouldn’t be prescribed an opioid. My goal was to help doctors identify patients who were at increased risk of misuse and addiction, so that they could receive more careful observation during treatment.

Since abuse and addiction are diagnosed by observing atypical behaviors, knowing which patients are at greatest risk for displaying those behaviors is useful in establishing appropriate levels of monitoring for abuse.

I was not alone in the belief that it was critical to assess patients for their risk potential.

In 2009, the American Pain Society and American Academy of Pain Medicine published a guideline for opioid prescribing. Its first recommendation stated: “Prior to initiating COT (chronic opioid therapy), clinicians should conduct a history, physical examination, and appropriate testing, including an assessment of risk of substance abuse, misuse, or addiction.”

Then, in 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s opioid-prescribing guideline recommended that “before starting and periodically during continuation of opioid therapy, clinicians should evaluate risk factors for opioid-related harms.”

Several other opioid prescribing guidelines also recommended assessing patient risk before initiating therapy. These included the Washington State Department of Health, Utah Clinical Guidelines on Prescribing Opioids for Treatment of Pain, the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) Opioid Guidelines, and others.

Risk Factors for Opioid Abuse

Assessing the risk of developing opioid abuse is based on genetic and environmental factors, just as it is with other diseases. Accordingly, the ORT includes questions about family and personal history of substance abuse, since both areas contribute to genetic and environmental factors. 

Genetics are estimated to contribute between 50 to 60% of an individual's vulnerability to opioid addiction. By contrast, genetics contribute only about 30% to a person's vulnerability to marijuana.

A person with one addiction is seven times more likely to develop an addiction to a different class of drugs, so genetics plays a major role in determining who will and who will not develop an opioid use disorder (OUD). Additionally, life experiences -- which are part of one’s environment -- also play a role.

The ORT asks if there is a history of experiencing preadolescent sexual abuse. Studies indicate that preadolescent sexual abuse is believed to result in something clinically similar to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has reported that 30 to 60% of women who are undergoing drug abuse treatment suffer from PTSD. One treatment center in New York City reports that more than 90% of women treated for substance abuse had experienced sexual or traumatic abuse. 

According to another NIDA report, victims of rape were 10 times more likely to have abused heroin and other stimulants than the general population. A study in 2000 also showed that a history of preadolescent sexual abuse tripled the risk of drug use disorders.

Many other studies have corroborated these studies, showing that preadolescent sexual abuse is a risk factor for substance abuse later in life. The most important of these is the seminal CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experience Study.

A Cruel Misapplication of ORT

Environmental and genetic factors should influence how closely a patient's opioid use is monitored. However, a history of experiencing preadolescent sexual abuse does not mean a person will necessarily develop an OUD. It is only a risk factor. It does not determine the outcome of using opioids, although it may partially indicate the level of monitoring, support, and education that would be appropriate.

It is a cruel misapplication of the ORT to use a background of sexual abuse as the only criterion to assess whether a patient should receive opioid therapy. The ORT is an important tool in mitigating harm that prescribing opioids could cause. It should not be weaponized to justify denying people in pain appropriate therapy. 

Lynn R. Webster, MD, is a vice president of scientific affairs for PRA Health Sciences and consults with the pharmaceutical industry. He is author of the award-winning book, “The Painful Truth,” and co-producer of the documentary, “It Hurts Until You Die.” You can find him on Twitter: @LynnRWebsterMD. 

The information in this column 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.

Acetaminophen Linked to Hyperactivity and Behavior Problems in Children

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A new study is adding to the growing body of evidence linking maternal use of acetaminophen to hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children. Acetaminophen – which is more commonly known as paracetamol outside the U.S. – is the world’s most widely used over-the-counter pain reliever.

British researchers have been following over 14,000 children born in 1991 and 1992 who are enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The children’s health, cognitive skills, temperament and behavior were regularly evaluated as they grew older.

Children with mothers who regularly used acetaminophen in mid to late pregnancy were more likely to be hyperactive, less adaptable and to have conduct problems in their pre-school years. The attention and hyperactivity issues appear to lessen by age 7, although boys exposed to the drug were more likely to have conduct problems until age 9.

“We have shown that paracetamol consumption between 18 and 32 weeks gestation was associated with adverse trends in pre‐school child behaviour, but the associations were no longer present by the end of primary school (age 10‐11 years). Boys appeared to be more susceptible than girls to possible behavioural effects of the drug,” researchers reported in the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Health.

Acetaminophen is used by over half the pregnant women in the United States and European Union. It is the active ingredient in Tylenol, Excedrin, and hundreds of pain medications.

Previous studies have linked maternal use of acetaminophen to asthma, autism and attention deficit disorder (ADHD) in children, as well as early puberty and slow language development in girls.

“Our findings add to a series of results concerning evidence of the possible adverse effects of taking paracetamol during pregnancy such as issues with asthma or behaviour in the offspring,” said lead author Professor Jean Golding of the University of Bristol.

“It reinforces the advice that women should be cautious when taking medication during pregnancy and to seek medical advice where necessary.”

Despite the findings, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) maintains that it is “usually safe” for pregnant women to use paracetamol.

“Paracetamol has been used routinely during all stages of pregnancy to reduce a high temperature and for pain relief. There's no clear evidence it has any harmful effects on an unborn baby,” the NHS says on its website.

The FDA’s warning label for acetaminophen cautions people about the risk of liver damage and other side effects, but does not specifically warn pregnant women about using the pain reliever. The agency said in 2015 that the evidence was “too limited” to justify such a warning.  

Mother Who Lost Son to OxyContin Vindicated by Purdue Settlement

By Mark Kreidler, Kaiser Health News

In the 15 years since she lost her son to a single OxyContin pill, Barbara Van Rooyan has had but one up-close look at the people representing the company that made it.

It was in a small courthouse in Abingdon, Va., where Van Rooyan and other relatives of OxyContin victims gathered for a sentencing hearing in 2007. Three executives of Purdue Pharma had pleaded guilty to federal charges related to their misbranding and marketing of the powerful opioid. The company had pleaded guilty as well.

Van Rooyan and the others in her group spoke during the sentencing, giving voice to their grief and their pain. They wanted the executives sent to jail for knowingly expanding an opioid crisis fast engulfing the country.

Instead, Purdue paid fines totaling $634 million. The executives served no time. The company was allowed to continue aggressively marketing its product, and the following year, sales of OxyContin reached $2 billion.

From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2017, nearly 68% of the more than 70,000 recorded overdose deaths involved opioids, mostly illicit opioids such as fentanyl and heroin.

“I never really thought a whole lot about evil before this all happened,” Van Rooyan said recently, seated on a couch in the living room of her Irvine, Calif., home. “But to see this kind of malevolence or disregard for human life — I don’t know what else to call it but evil.”

The outcome in that Virginia courthouse was a far cry from last week’s news of a tentative mass settlement of many of the 2,000-plus lawsuits against the company, which could total upward of $12 billion and result in Purdue’s dissolution.

The potential settlement amount would include $3 billion from the Sackler family, owners of Purdue, whose fortune is estimated at $13 billion. The family has amassed that money over the past two decades, largely by selling OxyContin, an opioid painkiller.

‘The Lid Is Off’

Van Rooyan’s Purdue experience is a story of deception, sadness and frustration — yet when she tells it now, she emits a surprising spark of energy. That’s because Van Rooyan, part of the unlikely group of citizens who repeatedly took flailing swings at Purdue Pharma, is watching the giant fall.

Van Rooyan, who has studied the cases against Purdue closely, sees the paradox in the proffered settlement: Much of the payout would be financed by profits from the continued sale of OxyContin, under a new company that would be formed following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

But in some regard, she said, Purdue Pharma’s complicity in the opioid crisis has finally emerged into the general public’s view. “The world really knows now. They get it,” she said. “The lid is off, and all this stuff is bubbling out.”

That wasn’t the case on the night of July 4, 2004, when Van Rooyan and her husband, Kirk, got the call that changed their world. Barbara, then a professor of counseling at Folsom Lake College near Sacramento, was told that her son, Patrick Stewart, lay in a San Diego hospital, in a medically induced coma from which he was unlikely to emerge.

Patrick, a graduate of Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills, Calif., and San Diego State University, died at age 24.

His friends told Barbara they had attended an Independence Day party at which someone offered her son an OxyContin pill, telling him it “was kind of like a muscle relaxant and it was FDA approved, so it was safe,” she said. Patrick, who had also consumed a couple of beers, was opioid intolerant and suffered respiratory failure in his sleep.

Barbara Van Rooyan holds picture of her son, Kirk

“At the time,” Van Rooyan said, “all I knew about Oxy was that Rush Limbaugh had been addicted to it.”

She was about to learn a lot more.

OxyContin Abuse

Van Rooyan channeled her grief through intense research into Oxy’s vast potential for damage despite the company’s sales pitches to the contrary. A slow-release pain treatment with a heavy dose of the narcotic oxycodone, it could be easily crushed or dissolved for a more intense and addictive high. Rampant abuse already had begun to be reported, particularly in the Appalachian area, author Beth Macy wrote in her national bestseller “Dopesick.”

Later in 2004, Van Rooyan found Ed Bisch, a Philadelphia man who had begun a website to expose Oxy abuse in the wake of his teenage son’s death. The following year, Van Rooyan and her husband, a plastic surgeon, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require that OxyContin be made more abuse-resistant, and that its use be strictly limited to severe pain.

“This was an exhausting process, which she and Kirk did as a labor of love to try to save others,” Bisch recalled.

Van Rooyan became the California arm of a grassroots movement known as RAPP — Relatives Against Purdue Pharma. The group, originally just four in number, protested at physician meetings funded by pharmaceutical companies and testified before Congress. Van Rooyan enlisted the help of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who wrote the FDA on her behalf and later sent Van Rooyan a letter of commendation.

But most members of Congress did not reply to Van Rooyan’s letters, she said. The FDA said its review needed more time — which turned out to be eight years. By then, Purdue already had reformulated OxyContin to make it more abuse resistant and to renew its patent, but the FDA declined to restrict its use to managing severe pain.

Van Rooyan pressed on, but for a long while, the opioid crisis felt to her like a topic hiding in plain sight. And fighting Purdue while still grieving the loss of son Patrick was taking a toll.

“Her determination was tireless,” Bisch said, “but eventually the frustration burned us out.”

And then came the turn.

A rash of high-profile opioid overdoses and deaths, from actor Heath Ledger to Tom Petty to Prince, put the topic squarely in the public eye — and 15 years after the death of Van Rooyan’s son, Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers were suddenly on the run.

(Editor’s note: Ledger, Petty and Prince all died from a lethal mix of opioids and other drugs that were apparently obtained on the street.)

Wants Purdue Settlement Spent on Treatment

Van Rooyan tracks every development related to Purdue, including a lawsuit in New York that alleges members of the Sackler family have been offloading their fortunes into private or offshore accounts to shield them from a settlement.

But she’s not out for vengeance. Her goals have changed.

“Do I want the records to be public? Do I want these people to have their business shut down? Yes, I do,” she said. “But more than vindictiveness, I want that money of theirs to go to treatment and rehab. If that happens, something good can come out of it.”

If she has a regret, it is that the case in Virginia ended in 2007 with no more than a fine. “If that result had been different — if people had gone to jail — it could have changed the trajectory of this,” she said.

Ana Venegas for KHN

But momentum finally appears to be gathering, and Van Rooyan finds herself identified as one of the trailblazers of the anti-OxyContin movement. She spends little time dwelling on that. Instead, she quotes her younger son, Andrew, who told her, “We didn’t want any of this — this is just the hand we were dealt. We need to play the cards the best we can.”

“She’s just a really strong person,” said Kirk Van Rooyan, who has been with Barbara throughout the ordeal, though he is not Patrick’s biological father. “There have been times when I’d think to myself, ‘How would I be doing if I were in her shoes?’ And the answer usually is, ‘Not as well as she’s doing.’”

Van Rooyan, a longtime artist, now spends much of her time volunteering with veterans in Orange County, Calif., helping them get back into the workforce and using art therapy to help them express themselves.

The art is special to Van Rooyan, she said, because it is part of what saved her in the aftermath of her son’s death.

“Patrick was the one who suggested I take my first class,” she said. After a few delays, she finally enrolled. It was about a month before that Fourth of July in 2004.

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Stop Demonizing the ‘Holy Trinity’

Lynn Kivell Ashcraft, Guest Columnist    

If we are to have any hope of a rational, scientific discussion about the issues involved in both pain management and addiction treatment, we need to end patient shaming and the use of sensational language that has no basis in clinical practice.

First on my list is to stop using the term “Holy Trinity” when referring to the use of multiple medication classes to manage pain. It is a sensational propagandizing use of terminology that has no place in any meaningful clinical discussion.

Holy Trinity was a term coined by law enforcement when discussing the behavior of addicts. The original Holy Trinity – the so-called “Houston Cocktail” -- referred to the simultaneous ingestion of the short acting drugs hydrocodone (Vicodin), alprazolam (Xanax) and carisoprodol (Soma) by addicts. Other combinations of opioids, muscle relaxants and anti-anxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines are also used.

“The cocktail is commonly known on the black market as the ‘holy trinity’ and is particularly sought-after by addicts, but is also particularly dangerous,” is how the DEA describes the drugs in criminal complaints, search warrants and training guides.  

SOURCE: DEA TRAINING GUIDE

Taken together, the three drugs can be risky and cause respiratory depression, overdose and death. But when used under medical supervision, they enable individuals with painful and disabling conditions to improve their quality of life and restore bodily functions.

Holy Trinity was never used originally to refer to any medication combination prescribed by physicians caring for pain patients. But with the advent of the opioid crisis, the term is being used as a scare tactic by law enforcement and even some medical providers to deny patients a combination of medications previously used successfully.

The unintended consequence of this careless usage has been the deaths and needless renewal of pain and disability for patients who were being safely prescribed these medications.  

There is no one-size-fits-all treatment for chronic severe centralized pain. In fact, the current Pain Management and Dosing Guide from the American Pain Society lists opioids plus other central nervous system depressants and valium (a diazepine) as potential treatments for neuropathic pain.

It is well acknowledged that successful treatment often requires polypharmacy regimens tailored to the needs of individual patients to achieve pain relief and provide quality of life. The potential risks of using multiple medications can be reduced by prescribing both long-acting forms of these drugs and by directing patients to take them separately. 

To use the Holy Trinity as an inflammatory term is to demonize certain medications that have been abused by addicts while being used successfully by intractable pain patients. The use of this derogatory term has caused the undeserved transference of the deeply held negative societal bias against “addicts” onto some of the frailest and medically complex patients, many of whom are struggling to achieve some quality of life. 

According to the CDC, about 20 percent of adults in the U.S. have chronic pain and 8 percent have severe “high impact” chronic pain that frequently limits their life or work activities. The 2011 Institute of Medicine report puts the number of Americans with pain at 100 million, which is more than those living with diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined.

The difference between the two reports highlights some of the issues with using and understanding statistics.  However, no matter which report you use, both numbers represent a staggering number of Americans living in pain who deserve effective treatment.

Let’s lose the term Holy Trinity and allow doctors to prescribe whatever medications they deem necessary for the restoration of function and the relief of pain in their patients. Name calling and the use of disrespectful terminology doesn’t solve either the problem of addiction or the problem of pain.

Lynn Kivell Ashcraft is an Analytic Software Consultant and writer who lives in Arizona. Lynn has lived with chronic intractable pain for almost 30 years and works with Dr. Forest Tennant as part of the Arachnoiditis Research and Education Project. 

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

Overdoses Linked to Fake Pain Pills Draw Little Attention

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A mysterious lung illness linked to marijuana vaping has drawn nationwide attention this week. The CDC said there were 6 confirmed deaths and 380 cases of the illness, which one doctor warned was “becoming an epidemic.”

Even the White House has gotten involved in the vaping crisis, with President Trump calling for a ban on flavored e-cigarettes. “People are dying with vaping,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, an even more deadly health crisis continues to spread, drawing relatively little attention from the nation’s media and federal officials. Counterfeit blue pills made with illicit fentanyl are killing Americans from coast to coast.

This week, health officials in California’s Santa Clara County announced that 9 fatal overdoses have been linked to counterfeit oxycodone pills since January, including the recent deaths of a 15 and 16-year old.  

Local law enforcement has seized a large number of the blue tablets, which have an “M” stamped on one side and a “30” on the other side. They are virtually indistinguishable from real oxycodone.

“The extent of circulation of these fake pills is unknown; however, they had been consumed by several of the people who died,” Santa Clara Public Health Director Sara Cody, MD, said in a statement. 

“Many opioid pills, which are made to look like real prescription medications, are now made by counterfeiting organizations. These pills are not prescribed, stolen, or resold by or from verified pharmaceutical companies, and there is no connection between their appearance and their ingredients. Many patients may not be aware of the risks of taking a pill that does not come directly from a pharmacy.”  

Mexican Oxy

The overdoses in Santa Clara County are not an isolated situation. Over 700 miles away, the Yakima County Coroner’s Office in Washington State warned that three recent deaths involved fake oxycodone pills with the same distinctive markings. Yakima is used as a major distribution center by Mexican drug cartels.

"Most of the time it comes from Mexico, but we haven't been able to pinpoint exactly which batch it's from and who is actually dealing it," said Casey Schilperoort, a spokesperson for the Yakima County Sheriff's Office.

Known on the street as “Mexican Oxy,” the pills were also found at the scene of four fatal overdoses near San Diego over the summer.  Ports of entry near San Diego are major transit points for counterfeit oxycodone smuggled in from Mexico. The pills are usually transported in vehicles, often by legal U.S. residents acting as couriers. They sell on the street for $9 to $30 each and have spread across the country.

In February, New York City police announced the seizure of 20,000 fake oxycodone pills. Overdose deaths in New York City are at record levels and fentanyl is involved in over half of them. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

This week federal prosecutors in Cleveland indicted ten people for trafficking in fake oxycodone and other illegal drugs. The leader of the drug ring, Jose Lozano-Leon, allegedly directed operations using a cell phone smuggled into his Ohio prison cell.

Prosecutors say Lozano spoke frequently with the co-defendants and others to arrange drug shipments from Mexico to northeast Ohio. The ring allegedly specialized in counterfeit oxycodone.

"In Ohio and other parts of the country, we are seeing an increase in these blue pills that at first glance appear to be legitimately produced oxycodone, but in fact are laced with fentanyl,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Keith Martin.

Ironically, the indictments were filed in the same federal courthouse where a major lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors is expected to get underway next month.  

One in Four Adults in England Take Addictive Meds

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Nearly 12 million people – about one in four adults in England -- are taking addictive prescription drugs to treat depression, anxiety, insomnia or chronic pain, according to a new review by Public Health England (PHE).

The review takes a cautionary view on the use of five drug classes – opioids, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids, and so-called “z-drugs” such as zolpidem, zopiclone and zaleplon.

“The medicines we looked at help to make millions of people every year feel better and recover from their illness. Doctors can prescribe them because there is good evidence that they work, but they do have some risks,” the PHE report found.

Benzodiazepines, z-drugs, opioids and gabapentinoids are associated with dependence and withdrawal, while there’s a risk of withdrawal with antidepressants. When the drugs are taken in combination or in high doses, there is also risk of respiratory depression and overdose.  

About half the patients prescribed the drugs in England had been taking them for at least a year — a sign of dependence. But the report cautions doctors not to abruptly discontinue the drugs and to taper them gradually, if at all.

“There is a view that a sub-population of chronic pain patients can be prescribed long-term opioids at relatively stable doses so that their analgesia and functioning can be maintained with good adherence and tolerable side-effects,” the report found.

“We do not want to put anyone off safely using medicines that could help them. Stopping or limiting the use of medicines could also cause harm, including increasing the risk of suicide or making people try to get medicines or illegal alternatives from less safe sources, such as illegal websites or drug dealers.”

Increasing Use of Antidepressants and Gabapentinoids

Antidepressants were prescribed to about 7.3 million people in England or 17% of the adult population. Opioids were prescribed to 5.6 million patients, followed by gabapentinoids (1.5 million), benzodiazepines (1.4 million) and z-drugs (1 million). Prescriptions for opioids, benzodiazepines and z-drugs are dropping, while the use of antidepressants and gabapentinoids is growing. 

Gabapentinoids such as pregabalin (Lyrica) and gabapentin (Neurontin) were originally developed to treat epilepsy, but the drugs are increasingly prescribed in the UK to treat neuropathy and other types of chronic pain. PHE researchers found only marginal evidence that they are effective for pain and alarming signs that they are being misused. 

“Gabapentinoids have come to be used for a wider range of indications than is supported by the evidence or their licensing, and they have sometimes been prescribed in place of opioids or benzodiazepines in the likely-mistaken belief that they are less liable to misuse or dependence, and lack of awareness of the withdrawal problems that can arise when prescribing is stopped,” the report said. 

Prescriptions for opioids and gabapentinoids were 1.6 times higher in parts of England with more poverty. People in poor areas are also more likely to be prescribed medicines for longer periods. Prescription rates for women are about 1.5 times higher than for men. Prescription rates also increased with age.

DEA Proposes More Cuts in Rx Opioids

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

For the fourth consecutive year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing steep cuts in the supply of hydrocodone, oxycodone and three other opioid painkillers classified as Schedule II controlled substances.

In a notice published today in the Federal Register, the DEA proposes to reduce production quotas for hydrocodone by 19 percent and oxycodone by 9 percent in 2020. The supply of hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and fentanyl would also be cut.

“The aggregate production quota set by DEA each calendar year ensures that patients have the medicines they need while also reducing excess production of controlled prescription drugs that can be diverted and misused,” acting DEA Administrator Uttam Dhillon said in a statement.

“DEA takes seriously its obligations to both protect the public from illicit drug trafficking and ensure adequate supplies to meet the legitimate needs of patients and researchers for these substances.”

In setting annual production quotas for controlled substances, DEA considers various factors such as medical need, estimates of retail consumption based on prescriptions, and forecasts from opioid manufacturers. Added to the mix this year is diversion.

The five opioids being cut are subject to special scrutiny under the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, known as the SUPPORT Act, which was signed into law by President Trump on October 24, 2018. The law requires DEA to estimate the amount of diversion of the five opioids and “make appropriate quota reductions.”

The agency estimated that 57 kilograms – about 125 pounds – of oxycodone were diverted or stolen in 2018, along with 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of hydrocodone. There was diversion of relatively small amounts of fentanyl, hydromorphone and oxymorphone last year.   

Cuts Began in 2016

The DEA first began cutting the supply of opioids in 2016 during the Obama administration and the trend has accelerated under President Trump, who pledged to reduce the supply of opioids by a third by 2021.

If approved, the 2020 production quotas would amount to a 60 percent decrease in the supply of hydrocodone since 2016 and a 48 percent cut in the supply of oxycodone.

While overdoses involving prescription opioids have been declining, they’ve been offset by a growing number of deaths attributed to illicit fentanyl, heroin and other street drugs. “Mexican Oxy” – counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl – are being trafficked throughout the United States and are blamed for overdoses from New York City to San Diego.

In addition to the five opioids, the DEA is setting production quotas on more than 250 Schedule I and II controlled substances. The agency is proposing to increase the amount of marijuana that can be produced for research by almost a third, from 2,450 kilograms in 2019 to 3,200 kilograms -- almost triple what it was in 2018. The increase reflects growing interest in marijuana research.

Public comments on the DEA proposal will be accepted until October 10. To make a comment online, click here. The agency will publish another notice later in the year on its final decision and begin informing drug manufacturers of their quota allotment.

Kolodny Clarifies His Conflicts of Interest

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Dr. Andrew Kolodny has revised his conflict of interest statements for two articles he co-authored in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) to include his work in malpractice lawsuits involving opioid medication.

Kolodny, the founder and Executive Director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), is a longtime critic of opioid prescribing. He recently testified as the “star witness” for Oklahoma in its opioid negligence lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, a case the state won with a $572 million judgement against J&J.

“I am writing to provide additional information to clarify conflict of interest disclosures in 2 articles I published in JAMA in 2017 and 2018.  During this time, I received compensation for work as an expert in malpractice litigation involving opioid prescribing,” Kolodny wrote in a Sept. 4 letter to JAMA’s editors.

“When the articles were first published, I did not believe this work could be perceived as a potential conflict of interest. My view has since changed. In the spirit of full transparency, I am requesting a correction to my disclosure statements.”

The two JAMA articles in question, which were co-authored by former CDC director Thomas Frieden, MD, both dealt with the opioid crisis and the federal policy response to it.

JAMA disclosure policy is very clear and requires authors to list “all relevant financial interests, activities, relationships and affiliations,” including payments for employment, consultancies and expert testimony.

During the Oklahoma trial, Kolodny admitted under questioning by J&J lawyers that he was being paid $725 an hour by Nix Patterson & Roach, one of three law firms hired by Oklahoma to handle the case against J&J. Kolodny anticipated being paid up to $500,000 by the end the Oklahoma trial.

“I don’t think it should be a secret that I’m being compensated,” he said.  

Kolodny also acknowledged working for the law firm of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in a similar capacity, also for $725 an hour. Cohen Milstein is heavily involved in opioid litigation in New Jersey, Indiana, Vermont, California and Illinois. 

Kolodny’s work in opioid litigation was disclosed in the April 2018 JAMA article.

DR. ANDREW KOLODNY

His revised disclosure statement for that article is vague, stating that he worked as “a medical expert for states and counties that have filed suits against opioid manufacturers and as an expert witness in malpractice cases involving opioid prescribing.” It does not identify which states, counties and law firms he worked for or what companies were being sued. 

JAMA policy calls for “complete disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest” covering a three-year period prior to an article being submitted. If an author received funding from the pharmaceutical industry, for example, he or she would be expected to identify the company involved.   

“It is encouraging that Dr. Kolodny has recognized that his very profitable work supporting plaintiffs in opioid lawsuits might constitute a conflict of interest when he writes about opioid policy and clinical practice,” said Bob Twillman, PhD, a healthcare policy consultant and former Executive Director of the Academy of Pain Management. “Of course, these aren't the only two articles Dr. Kolodny has co-authored, and he has done numerous presentations at professional meetings as well, so I wonder if he will seek to correct all the rest of those relevant disclosure statements.

“I think it's also interesting that, when I disclose my conflict, I am always required to specifically name the entity involved, yet Dr. Kolodny names neither the jurisdictions nor the law firms for which he was working. It seems a little like a double standard to me, and I wonder how the editorial boards of the relevant journals feel about that.”

In March 2017, Kolodny co-authored a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine on a study he designed that looked into funding that patient advocacy groups and professional organizations received from opioid manufacturers. Many of those organizations publicly opposed the CDC’s controversial opioid prescribing guideline, which Kolodny and other PROP members helped draft.

“The CDC did not prompt or require organizations to disclose their financial associations as part of their comments. Disclosure, however, is one means of managing conflicts of interest,” Kolodny and his co-authors wrote. “Our findings demonstrate that greater transparency is required about the financial relationships between opioid manufacturers and patient and professional groups.”

Kolodny’s disclosure statement for the 2017 article states that he was a member of PROP and Chief Medical Officer for the addiction treatment chain Phoenix House (which he has since left). It makes no mention of his work in opioid litigation or malpractice lawsuits, which appear to have begun in 2012 when he started working with Linda Singer, then from the law firm of Cohen Milstein.

Lucrative Sideline

Kolodny is not the only critic of opioid prescribing to develop a lucrative sideline as a medical expert or paid witness. Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, Director of PharmedOUT, a program at Georgetown University that seeks to expose deceptive healthcare marketing practices, has also been paid handsomely for her testimony.

In August, Fugh-Berman testified in California that she was paid $500 an hour for her work in a pelvic mesh liability trial of Johnson & Johnson. She received about $120,000 for her work on the case, according to Northern California Record.

Fugh-Berman has written several op/eds claiming that “industry-funded attacks” on the CDC guideline by physician and patient advocacy groups were part of a “coordinated attempt by opioid manufacturers to use third parties to undermine, discredit, and smear the guideline.”

Fugh-Berman discloses on PharmedOUT’s website that she is a paid expert witness, but she won’t say who funds her organization.

“(We) are funded primarily by individual donations, mostly small donations but we have several major donors. We do not provide the names of our individual donors,” she said in an email to PNN.  

Dr. Timothy Munzing, a Kaiser Permanente family practice physician in California, has also stoutly defended the CDC guideline and warned against excessive opioid prescribing.

“Most prescribing physicians feeding the opioid epidemic are well meaning, naïve, or just too busy to recognize the dangers,” he wrote in a physician guide for opioid prescribing published by Kaiser Permanente.

Over the past decade, Munzing has established a profitable career as an expert witness for the Medical Board of California, DEA, FBI and DOJ, working mostly on cases that involve doctors flagged for overprescribing opioids.

According to GovTribe.com, which tracks payments to federal contractors, Munzing has been awarded nearly $1.3 million in DOJ contracts since 2017 and is currently working on over two dozen DEA investigations.

After he left Phoenix House, Kolodny became the co-director of an opioid research program at Brandeis University that is funded with over $8.5 million federal grants, according to GovTribe.com.

The Visible Few Pain Patients

By Dr. Lynn Webster, PNN Columnist

I receive several emails a week from people who ask for help because their treatment options have been limited or eliminated. They are in terrible pain, and they don’t know what to do.

One such person, Sharon Berenfeld, MD, recently shared an experience she had visiting her doctor.

“Dr. Webster, I came across a publication of yours. It struck a nerve with me. My pain is intractable. I have tried everything,” she wrote. “Before the exam room door even closed, [my doctor] announced to me, ‘If you think I’m just here to refill your pills, you can leave now.'

"I left in tears. I was being judged and punished for having a complication from cancer treatment. I completely understand the opioid crisis. But I feel impotent to do anything."

Who Are the Visible Few?

Earlier this year, Fox News' three-part series, Treating America's Pain: Unintended Victims of the Opioid Crackdown, showed the terrifying circumstances of people in pain and doctors under siege. One individual’s decision to commit suicide as a result of the crackdown on opioid prescribing embodies the struggles of people in pain and their providers' inability to meet their needs.

The visible few are the small number of people whose stories have been heard by journalists, media consumers and government officials. Their stories reflect millions of Americans suffering from chronic pain who live in the shadows and are invisible to most of us. 

The needs of people in pain and the challenges providers face when treating them have been overshadowed by the government's attempts to deal with the opioid crisis. The well-intentioned CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain has affected 20 million Americans with severe disabling pain.

It also is having consequences for everyone else in the healthcare system. Prescription opioids have been demonized and blamed for our current drug crisis.

Unintended Consequences

The CDC guideline was supposed to be voluntary. However, in practice, the guideline has been treated as a policy with the strength of a law, and it has had severe unintended consequences. Many people are worse off in its wake. Here is a summary of the most substantial effects of the guideline.

• Providers feel pressured to reduce the amount of opioids that they prescribe, regardless of their patients' individual needs. About 70% of physicians have reduced their opioid prescribing or stopped it completely.

• Insurance companies set prescription limits based on the guideline. In some cases, they override physicians' recommendations. That means insurers, rather than doctors, are making decisions about how to treat pain.

• Pharmacy chains are also limiting the amount of opioids they dispense, based on the guideline rather than on doctors' prescriptions..

• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have set dosage limits. Providers advocating for patients who need higher amounts must navigate a complicated appeals process.

• State attorneys general have used the guideline to evaluate whether a doctor is prescribing for a legitimate medical purpose. Deviation from the guideline has been used to accuse doctors of criminal conduct.

• In a desperate search for pain relief, some patients have turned to street drugs.

Where We Are Now

The CDC guideline has left a trail of misunderstanding in its path. Its authors acknowledged misapplication of the guideline in the New England Journal of Medicine, emphasizing that their intention was to provide guidance rather than to establish a mandate.

"Difficulties faced by clinicians in prescribing opioids safely and effectively, growing awareness of opioid-associated risks, and a public health imperative to address opioid overdose underscored the need for the guidance,” they wrote.

In a separate article in the JAMA Network, the guideline's authors said, “The number of people experiencing chronic pain is substantial, with U.S. prevalence estimated at 11.2% of the adult population. Patients should receive appropriate pain treatment based on careful considerations of the benefits and risks of treatment options.”

There are other signs of recognition that the guideline has been misinterpreted. For example, CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, wrote in a letter to Health Professionals for Patients in Pain (HP3), “The CDC is working diligently to evaluate the impact of the guideline and clarify its recommendations to reduce unintended harm.”

The American Medical Association's House of Delegates passed a series of resolutions on the guideline at an interim meeting in November 2018.

“Physicians should not be subject to professional discipline, loss of board certification, loss of clinical privileges, criminal prosecution, civil liability, or other penalties or practice limitations solely for prescribing opioids at a quantitative level above the morphine milligram level thresholds found in the CDC guidelines for prescribing opioids,” the AMA delegates said.

There is also some light being shined on the issue in a report by The Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach when treating and managing patients with painful conditions. Individuals who live with pain are suffering and need compassionate, individualized and effective approaches to improving pain and clinical outcomes. This is a roadmap that is desperately needed to treat our nation’s pain crisis,” said Vanila Singh, MD, task force chair and chief medical officer of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health.

As the opioid odyssey continues, there are signs that the visible few are beginning to be heard. This is an important step to helping the invisible millions with chronic pain receive the care they deserve.

Lynn R. Webster, MD, is a vice president of scientific affairs for PRA Health Sciences and consults with the pharmaceutical industry. He is author of the award-winning book, “The Painful Truth,” and co-producer of the documentary, “It Hurts Until You Die.” You can find him on Twitter: @LynnRWebsterMD.

The information in this column 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.

Outcomes Matter When Opioids Are Tapered

By Roger Chriss, PNN Columnist

The drug overdose crisis has led to a rethinking of pain management. Prescription opioids are now seen as risky medications with potentially serious side effects, including addiction and overdose. As a result, there is an increasing push to discontinue or taper patients on long-term opioid therapy.

A recent op/ed in the Annals of Internal Medicine by physicians Roger Chou, Jane Ballantyne and Anna Lembke claims there is “little benefit” from long-term opioid use and “many patients” would benefit from tapering. They even suggest that the use of addiction treatment drugs such as Suboxone should be expanded to include pain patients dependent on opioids.

“Evidence indicates that long-term opioid therapy confers little benefit versus nonopioid therapy, particularly for function. Opioid use disorder (OUD) occurs in a subset of patients, and quality of life may be adversely affected despite perceived pain benefits,” they wrote.

“We argue that achieving effective, safe, and compassionate tapers requires implementing and incentivizing tapering protocols, recognizing prescription opioid dependence as a distinct clinical condition necessitating treatment, and expanding the indication for buprenorphine formulations approved for OUD to include prescription opioid dependence.”

It should be noted Chou is one of the co-authors of the CDC’s controversial opioid prescribing guideline, while Ballantyne and Lembke are board members of the anti-opioid activist group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP). Ballantyne, who is president of PROP, was part of the “core expert group” that advised the CDC when it was drafting its guideline.

What Happens to Tapered Patients?

The goal of improving patient safety is admirable. However, there is relatively little data on what happens to patients during tapering or after opioids are discontinued. The evidence is mixed at best.

A 2018 review in Pain Medicine of 20 studies involving over 2,100 chronic pain patients found that most patients had less pain or the same amount of pain when tapering was completed. But the studies were not controlled and the evidence was of marginal quality, with large amounts of data missing.

A 2019 study in the journal Pain evaluated outcomes in 49 former opioid users with chronic pain. The findings showed that about half the patients reported their pain to be better or the same after stopping opioids, while the other half reported their pain was worse.

There are risks associated with tapering that also need to be considered, such as uncontrolled pain, suicide, overdose and early death. The tapering process itself can be extremely challenging and patient outcomes after discontinuation are not necessarily positive.

A recent study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine looked at what happened to chronic pain patients being treated at a large urban healthcare system in the year after they were tapered.

For about 5 percent of patients, “termination of care” was the primary outcome – a vague category that means there was no record of them seeking further treatment. Some of those patients may have miraculously gotten better and required no healthcare. And some may have died.

“These findings invite caution and demonstrate the need to fully understand the risks and benefits of opioid tapers,” the authors warned.

Another study in the same journal is also concerning. Researchers at the University of Washington followed 572 patients who were treated with opioids at a Seattle pain clinic. About 20 percent of the patients died, a high mortality rate, but the death rate was even higher for patients who were tapered. Seventeen of them died from a definite or possible overdose.

“In this cohort of patients prescribed COT (chronic opioid therapy) for chronic pain, mortality was high. Discontinuation of COT did not reduce risk of death and was associated with increased risk of overdose death,” the authors concluded.

"We are worried by these results, because they suggest that the policy recommendations intended to make opioid prescribing safer are not working as intended," said lead author Jocelyn James, assistant professor of general internal medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "We have to make sure we develop systems to protect patients."

In other words, opioid discontinuation does not necessarily lead to better outcomes, as Chou, Ballantyne and Lembke suggest. The blind push to taper patients at all costs to reduce opioid prescribing can have tragic consequences — which no one seems to be tracking.

“Crucially, today’s opioid prescribing metrics take no count of whether the patient lives or dies. Data from two recent studies strongly suggest it is time to start counting. The sooner quality standards are revised in favor of genuine patient protection, the better,” says Stefan Kertesz, MD, an Alabama physician and researcher.

Outcomes matter. And they need to be reasonable for the patient. A person with a self-limiting condition like low back pain may well benefit from opioid discontinuation. But some patients with more chronic conditions do not get better, and their needs cannot go ignored.

The Canadian Psychological Association emphasizes caution and patient safety in a recent position paper on the opioid crisis:  “Tapering must always be done gradually under physician or nurse practitioner supervision, with the patient's consent, and with ongoing support and monitoring of pain and functioning, as well as management of withdrawal symptoms."

The use of prescription opioids should always take patient risks and benefits into consideration. It also requires knowing about outcomes when taking patients off opioids. At present there is too much interest in numbers and too little interest in people.

Roger Chriss lives with Ehlers Danlos syndrome and is a proud member of the Ehlers-Danlos Society. Roger is a technical consultant in Washington state, where he specializes in mathematics and research.

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.

Americans More Likely To Get Opioid Prescriptions After Surgery

By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

Americans and Canadians are seven times more likely to fill a prescription for opioid pain pills in the week after surgery than Swedes, says a study published Wednesday, one of the first to quantify international differences.

More than 75% of patients in the U.S. and Canada filled a prescription for opioids following four common surgeries, compared with 11% of Swedes, researchers report in JAMA Network Open. Americans also received the highest doses of opioids.

So, are Americans and Canadians wimpier than Swedes when it comes to pain, or is something else going on?

“There are a lot of tough people in lots of places,” demurred Mark Neuman, an associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a co-author of the study.

He pointed to a host of other potential factors, from cultural differences to variations in marketing, regulation and long-standing, ingrained prescribing habits.

“It’s possible that in the U.S. people think about opioids as pain relief in a drastically different way than in other places,” he said.

Researchers examined four types of surgeries — minimally invasive types of appendectomy and gallbladder removal, as well as arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the knee and breast tumor removal. All the surgeries occurred from 2013 to March 2016, a time of growing concern about opioid dependence in the United States but before more recent guidelines suggesting that fewer pills are needed following many common surgeries.

Even so, “for the same exact surgery, the same exact tissue trauma, we have seven times more people in the U.S. getting opioids,” said Neuman.

On average, patients in the U.S. filled prescriptions for about 33 pills, each equivalent to 5 milligrams of oxycodone, he said, although the type of drug varied. Swedes who filled prescriptions had an average of 26 pills, while Canadians had 22.

Canadians and Swedes were also far more likely to get codeine or tramadol — painkillers that rely on a different mechanism in the body and are considered weaker types of opioids. Americans were far more likely to get hydrocodone or oxycodone, some of which were heavily marketed to physicians by drugmakers. States and cities are currently suing manufacturers, alleging they misrepresented the drugs’ risks and didn’t properly monitor suspiciously large sales, contributing to the opioid crisis.

The study does not comment on the marketing aspect but did note two factors that might account for some of the difference in the types of drugs prescribed. One is that, during the research period, low-dose codeine was available over the counter in Canada. Tramadol is still not classified as a controlled substance there, although it has been a controlled substance in Sweden since 2007 and in the U.S. since 2014.

“While prescribers may view these so-called weak opioids as safer alternatives, data suggests that both codeine and tramadol have the potential for misuse and life-threatening adverse effects,” the study says.

The U.S. and Canada were chosen because they have the highest per capita consumption rate of opioids in the world. Sweden was picked as a European counterpoint because researchers could obtain detailed prescription information from databases there.

While the study was large — following about 129,000 patients in the U.S. with job-based insurance, 84,600 in Canada’s Ontario province and 9,800 in Sweden — it did have limitations. For one, researchers could not track how many pills patients actually took of those prescribed, or the number of patients who didn’t fill prescriptions they were given. Secondly, they don’t have data on how well patients felt their pain was controlled following surgery.

“It’s possible that in Sweden everyone’s pain treatment is less than in the U.S., although I think that is unlikely,” said Neuman, noting that other studies have shown that patients in the U.S. often do not take all the pills they’ve been prescribed following surgeries.

Fewer Pills Being Prescribed

In addition, for certain types of surgeries, patients do not report greater dissatisfaction when prescribed fewer pills after surgery. Researchers in Michigan, for example, recently reported on what happened after dozens of hospitals recommended new prescribing guidelines — drawn up after studying how many pills patients actually took — following certain surgeries. While recommendations were often for far fewer than 30 tablets, researchers found no increase in reported pain.

Like the group in Michigan, some academic medical centers and other experts have recently issued guidelines calling for fewer pills following many procedures. Those grew out of concern that patients with what is called acute pain — the kind following surgical procedures, for example — were given far too many pills.

An analysis of Medicare data by Kaiser Health News with researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, for example, found prescribing from 2011 to 2016 exceeded levels now recommended by organizations like Johns Hopkins. For example, Medicare patients took home 48 pills in the week following coronary artery bypass, 31 following laparoscopic gallbladder removal, 28 after a lumpectomy and 34 after minimally invasive hysterectomies.

According to postsurgical guidelines spearheaded by Johns Hopkins last year, those surgeries should require at most 30 pills for a bypass, and 10 pills for minimally invasive gallbladder removal, lumpectomy and minimally invasive hysterectomy.

Postsurgical opioid use can lead to long-term dependency in a small but significant percentage of patients, studies have shown, but unused pills can also be a danger. Those tablets can make their way to the street or fall into the hands of other family members.

Researcher Dr. Chad Brummett, who worked on the guidelines in Michigan, said he thinks prescribing amounts in the U.S. and Canada have likely dipped in recent years, given the increased attention. Still, he cautioned that the amounts likely remain too high in both countries and that the new study illustrates the wide disparity between North America and at least one European country.

“We know that marketing in the U.S. has affected prescribing in all domains, including surgery,” said Brummett. “This study and others show that [surgeons] in the U.S. and Canada can drastically reduce prescribing standards without adversely affecting patient care.”

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

How Pain Patients Feel About the Opioid Crisis

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

We received an overwhelming response from readers to Diana’s Franklin guest column on how the opioid crisis has affected her. Diana has suffered from scoliosis since she was a child and now has degenerative disc disease. For many years oxycodone helped Diana manage her chronic back pain, but she can no longer get it.

Diana considers herself collateral damage of a crisis she had nothing to do with.

“The government stopped allowing my doctor to prescribe any opioids, leaving many of his patients, including myself, without any pain medication at all,” Diana wrote.

“I can hardly get up to go across the room without help and every step causes extreme pain. I can't think straight and wind up exhausted because every ounce of energy I have goes to fighting the pain.”

Diana’s story hit home with hundreds of readers who left comments or sent us emails.

“Just recently my doctor said that he was gonna have to stop prescribing me my opioid pain medication,” wrote Jeffrey Ticich, who suffers from scoliosis, stenosis, a herniated disc, and recently had his right leg amputated.

“When my doctor takes my opioid pain medication away from me, I will start looking for a burial plot. I have suffered most of my life with severe chronic acute pain and I will not suffer anymore. There has got to be a solution for patients that are suffering and not abusing their opiate pain medication.”

“I am a disabled law enforcement officer. I was hurt in a car crash years ago responding to a rape in progress. The only way I've had any quality of life is with the pain medication,” wrote a man who didn’t want his name used. “Life has been really rough since (they) restricted pain medication. Also think of all the injured veterans. What a way to say thanks for your service.”

“I've suffered with neuropathy for almost 15 years. It's very painful, especially in my lower legs. I find it difficult to even walk to the mailbox and back,” said Leslie Rowland, who is 70. “I too am a case of collateral damage when it comes to pain meds. I've loved to fish all my life but had to give it up this year due to the pain. Please, someone with a voice needs to be heard for people like me. All I want is not to be in pain 24/7 and to have a decent quality of life.”

CDC Guideline Unchanged

Many pain patients thought their voices were finally being heard last April, when CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, acknowledged that many insurers, pharmacies, states and practitioners were implementing the agency’s 2016 opioid guideline as a mandatory policy.

“The Guideline does not endorse mandated or abrupt dose reduction or discontinuation, as these actions can result in patient harm. The Guideline includes recommendations for clinicians to work with patients to taper or reduce dosage only when patient harm outweighs patient benefit of opioid therapy,” said Redfield.

“CDC is working diligently to evaluate the impact of the Guideline and clarify its recommendations to help reduce unintended harms.”

Five months later, not a word of the CDC guideline has changed. And many doctors, insurers and pharmacies are still reducing opioid dosages or cutting off patients.   

“My pain doctor keeps reducing my pain medicine dose to the point that it's almost ineffective, thanks to our government's unrealistic guidelines. And instead of going after the real culprits of the problem (the dealers), they're putting the blame on the doctors,” wrote Richard Parrish. “Those of us who really need help are paying the price for our inept government's prescribing guidelines. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!”

“I have been in pain since last October from neck pain that travels to the back of my ear from whiplash,” wrote Lois Henkin. “I have been to all kinds of doctors, had physical therapy, had facet joint shots, cervical steroid shots, etc. with no change in the pain.

“I was put on gabapentin for the pain, with no results. I switched to Tramadol, which works, but now because of the opioid crisis, I am not even given 1 pill a day. This is not fair to people that have severe pain. Just limit the meds to the drug addicts.”

Many readers, like Debra Christian, said they felt abandoned and misunderstood.

“Unless you live in chronic pain, then you don't understand it, nor do you know what it does to a person and how it changes the person they were,” Christian wrote. “We don't have lives. We’re just existing.

“This is a problem. This is a travesty. This is a financial burden. And I am an American who wants to still work, but I can’t. It will be up to me to fight with whatever strength I have left, if I want any quality from my life that I and so many others deserve.”

In PNN’s recent survey of nearly 6,000 patients, over 85 percent said the guideline has made their pain and quality of life worse. Nearly half say they have considered suicide because their pain is poorly treated.

Opioid Overdoses Drop, But Fentanyl Crisis ‘Likely to Get Worse’

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Opioid overdose deaths fell by nearly 5 percent in 25 U.S. states last year, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- one of the first reports to document a significant decrease in opioid overdoses.

The 25 states covered in the report are participating in the CDC’s State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS), which tracks overdose deaths through toxicology, medical examiner and coroner reports. SUDORS is considered more reliable than other databases because it provides more details on the types of drugs involved – both legal and illegal.

Opioid overdoses fell overall by 4.6% in the first six months of 2018, driven in large part by a 6.6% decline in deaths involving prescription opioids. The CDC found that less than a third (28.7%) of the overdoses were linked to opioid pain medication. Most overdoses involve illicit drugs.

“Prescription opioid deaths stabilized nationally from 2016 to 2017, and the number of opioid prescriptions filled has been decreasing for several years, as efforts to reduce high-risk prescribing have increased. Findings from this report suggest these efforts might have fostered decreases in prescription opioid deaths without illicit opioids,” researchers said.

While the data about prescription opioids is encouraging, the report paints a grim picture about the abuse of other substances. Nearly 63% of the opioid overdoses involved a non-opioid drug such as cocaine, methamphetamine or benzodiazepines.

Overdoses linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) rose by 11.1% in 2018, with fentanyl or a fentanyl analog involved in nearly nine out of ten opioid deaths.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl analogs such as carfentanil can be even stronger. Most drug users have no idea what they’re getting, because fentanyl is often added to heroin, cocaine and other drugs to boost their potency, or used in the production of counterfeit medication.

Fentanyl Dominates Black Market

A new report from the RAND corporation, a nonprofit research organization, suggests the fentanyl problem will be hard to eradicate. Researchers looked at synthetic opioid markets in the U.S. and other parts of the world, such as Canada and Estonia — where fentanyl first appeared 20 years ago..

“Once fentanyl gains a foothold, it appears capable of sweeping through a market very quickly,” wrote Bryce Pardo, lead author of the study and an associate policy researcher at RAND. “We know of no instance in which fentanyl attained a dominant position in the marketplace and then lost that position to another less potent opioid. To date, fentanyl’s spread appears to be a one-way ratchet.

“One of the most important — and depressing — insights in this analysis is that however bad the synthetic opioid problem is now, it is likely to get worse before it gets better.” 

RAND researchers say the surge in fentanyl and other synthetic opioids is driven by supply-side factors more than user demand. China's pharmaceutical and chemical industries are poorly regulated, allowing producers to cheaply produce fentanyl and ship it to buyers anywhere in the world. Mexican drug traffickers smuggle most of the fentanyl that enters the U.S., although some of it is shipped in the mail or by commercial delivery services.

DEA IMAGE

Unconventional strategies may be needed to address the fentanyl crisis. The RAND researchers advocate several innovative approaches, such as supervised drug consumption sites, creative supply disruption, drug product testing, and heroin-assisted treatment, which is available in some countries. Sweden has developed an online market with fentanyl analogs sold primarily as nasal sprays.

"It might be that the synthetic opioid problem will eventually be resolved with approaches or technologies that do not currently exist or have yet to be tested," said Beau Kilmer, study co-author and director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. "Limiting policy responses to existing approaches will likely be insufficient and may condemn many people to early deaths."

RAND researchers say there is little reason to believe that tougher sentences, including homicide laws for low-level drug dealers and couriers, will make a difference.

Last week the Mexican navy found over 25 tons of powdered fentanyl on a Danish ship docked at a Mexican port, one of the largest fentanyl shipments ever seized. The shipment originated from Shanghai, China.

Chinese officials are pushing back on claims that they’re not doing enough to stop fentanyl exports, saying the U.S. needs to stop blaming other countries for its own drug problems.

“A small group of people produce fentanyl illegally in China and mail them to the U.S. and other regions, driven by the exorbitant profit and at the request of criminals overseas, including those in the U.S. The Chinese government has zero tolerance for this. Once we find clues, we chase them down and spare no one,” Liu Yuejin, deputy head of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, told Bloomberg.

“I think the most important thing for U.S. politicians is to face the reality: What’s the root cause of such large-scale abuse of fentanyl in the U.S.? They need to find out and come up with solutions.”  

Tramadol Raises Risk of Low Blood Sugar

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Patients who take the opioid tramadol are at greater risk for developing hypoglycemia – a condition caused by very low blood sugar -- than those taking other pain medications, according to researchers at the University of California San Diego.

Prescriptions for tramadol – a synthetic opioid sold under the brand names Ultram and ConZip – have been increasing because it is perceived as a “safer” opioid with less rick of addiction. Tramadol is currently ranked among the top five prescribed opioids in the United States.

As tramadol use has grown, so have documented cases of adverse effects such as dizziness, nausea, headaches and constipation — all common side effects of opioids.

The link to hypoglycemia was discovered by accident when researchers at UCSD’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences analyzed more than 12 million reports from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System from January 2004 to March 2019.

“The impetus was the recent dramatic surge in tramadol popularity and prescriptions,” said Tigran Makunts, PharmD, first author of the study published in Scientific Reports. “We wanted to have an objective data-driven look at its adverse effects and bumped into a dangerous, unlisted and unexpected hypoglycemia.”

The researchers compared adverse events involving tramadol to those linked to other widely prescribed opioids and non-opioid medications, such serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (Cymbalta, Effexor XR) and NMDA receptors (ketamine and memantine).

Only tramadol produced a significant risk of developing hypoglycemia. There was a 10-fold greater risk of hypoglycemia using tramadol than virtually every other opioid except methadone, which is typically used to treat addiction.

Hypoglycemia is often related to the treatment of diabetes, but can also occur in persons without diabetes. Left untreated, hypoglycemia can lead to serious complications, such as neurocognitive dysfunction, vision loss, greater risk of falls and loss of quality of life.

“The takeaway message is to warn physicians about the likelihood of low blood sugar, in particular if the patient is predisposed to diabetes,” said senior author Ruben Abagyan, PhD, a professor of pharmacy at UCSD.

“It may be beneficial to monitor glucose levels when initiating tramadol or methadone in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Alternative opioids or non-opioid pain medications may be safer to use with patients at risk of hypoglycemia or any complications associated with hypoglycemia.”

Tramadol was classified in 2014 by the DEA as a Schedule IV controlled substance, a category that means it has a low potential for abuse. A recent study, however, by Mayo Clinic researchers found that patients who took tramadol for post-surgical pain have a slightly higher risk of prolonged use than those taking oxycodone or other short acting opioids.

In 2017, the FDA banned the use of tramadol in children under the age of 12, citing a handful of cases where children died or had serious breathing problems after using the drug.

Oklahoma Judge Orders J&J to Pay $572 Million in Damages

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

In a precedent setting case, an Oklahoma judge has ruled that Johnson & Johnson is partly responsible for fueling Oklahoma’s opioid crisis and ordered the health care giant to pay $572 million in damages.

“The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma and must be abated immediately,” said Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman, reading his decision aloud from the bench.

Balkman said J&J concocted a ‘marketing scheme” for opioid pain medication that overstated the drugs’ effectiveness and underplayed their risks. The company’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceutical, produced less than one percent of the opioids prescribed in Oklahoma, but supplied 60% of the ingredients in painkillers sold by other companies.  

“They developed and carried out a plan to directly influence and convince doctors to prescribe more and more opioids, despite the fact that defendants knew increasing the supply of opioids would lead to abuse, addiction, misuse, death and crime,” the judge said.

Oklahoma had asked for $17.5 billion from J&J to pay for addiction treatment, emergency care, law enforcement and other services needed to address the opioid crisis. J&J said it would appeal the judges “flawed” ruling.

"Janssen did not cause the opioid crisis in Oklahoma, and neither the facts nor the law support this outcome," Michael Ullmann, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for J&J, said in a statement. “This judgment is a misapplication of public nuisance law that has already been rejected by judges in other states.

"The unprecedented award for the State's 'abatement plan' has sweeping ramifications for many industries and bears no relation to the Company's medicines or conduct." 

Balkman’s ruling is not legally binding on any other court, but as the first opioid case to go to trial, it is expected to have a significant impact on negotiations to resolve nearly 2,000 lawsuits filed by states, cities and counties against opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies. Many of those cases have been consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio.

Oklahoma previously reached a $270 million out-of-court settlement with Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma and an $85 million deal with Teva Pharmaceutical. Endo International and Allergan recently agreed to pay $10 million and $5 million respectively to two Ohio counties to avoid going to trial.

Compared to the cost and bad publicity that J&J went through defending itself in Oklahoma, those settlements look prescient.

As PNN has reported, three law firms that acted as lead outside counsel for Oklahoma stand to collect 25% of the damages and penalties awarded to the state. Oklahoma’s star witness, anti-opioid activist Dr. Andrew Kolodny, testified that he was paid $500,000 for his services at a rate of $725 an hour.