Potentially addictive medication can present prescribing puzzle

Ensuring appropriate use of strong prescription medications is the goal of a new campaign by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. May 14, 2001.

Washington -- Physicians may sometimes find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to prescribing potentially addictive medications.

There is always the fear that a patient will become addicted to the pain relievers, central nervous system depressants or stimulants being prescribed. And there is the problem of patients who are intent upon fraudulently obtaining the drugs. But those medications hold great promise of relief for most patients and to withhold them would unnecessarily prolong suffering.

"We are dealing with medications that treat very real problems like depression, anxiety and attention-deficit disorder," said Karla Birkholz, MD, a family physician in Phoenix. "And these medications are wonderful for treating them," she said. "But the more wonderful drugs we have, the more people can find ways to misuse them."

Terry Horton, MD, medical director and vice president of Phoenix House Foundation, a national drug treatment agency headquartered in New York City, sees many patients who are addicted to prescription drugs.

Several years ago he asked a patient how she was able to get the various prescription drugs she had obtained. She explained that she would look in the Physicians' Desk Reference for a drug she liked, determine what the indications were for that drug and then parrot the symptoms to a doctor. "It was a very sophisticated approach to duping physicians," he said.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently joined with physician and pharmaceutical groups in a national effort to help prevent the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. [...]