Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
Serious question: as we make opiods and now bezos increasingly difficult to prescribe, what are the alternatives for people with chronic pain or chronic anxiety?<p>I have friends and family members with chronic pain and, through them and their communities, have become aware of many people who use opiods on a long-term, occasional basis to manage their pain.  A family member of mine who suffers from chronic migraine lives in fear that she won&#x27;t be able to get an opiod which she uses as a last-ditch rescue treatment before she ends up at the ER (not to mention that she gets treated like a drug seeker when she does end up there).<p>I don&#x27;t really see an alternative for acute intense pain; likewise an alternative for acute, intense anxiety.  Meanwhile the crackdowns on these drugs also create a chilling effect for physicians.  What do we do for people who fall in those categories?<p>(Edit: not to claim that abuse of these drugs is not a problem... It just seems like the people these drugs are inteded to help are being sidelined in the dialog on the topic.)