Efforts being made to decrease use of opioids | Local News

People are often introduced to those medications when doctors prescribe a short-term use of opioids, Rajput said.

Some of those taking opioids also wind up using benzodiazepines, which are anti-anxiety medications. One example is Xanax.

Studies show that many victims of medication overdose have both opioid and benzodiazepine in their systems. “So together they form a lethal combination,” Rajput said.

Rajput would like to call attention to the nation’s opioid epidemic. “It’s one of the largest epidemics we have,” he said. Like other doctors, he’s fully behind efforts to cut down on the number of opioid prescriptions.

Rajput, 42, is a pain physician and psychiatrist who has offices in both Grand Island and Hastings.

He is president of the Nebraska Society for Interventional Pain Physicians. He’s also on the panel of the Hall County Opioid Prevention Project.

In addition to reducing opioid prescriptions, doctors need to do a better job of serving their patients, Rajput said. One of the keys is offering non-narcotic treatment for their pain, he said.

An estimated 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. That discomfort might involve chronic knee pain, back pain or chronic headaches.

Some of the people who come to see Rajput are already addicted to medications. Some of them have chronic pain issues, some do not.

Sometimes individuals try to kick opioid medications on their own. But when they experience withdrawal symptoms, many start taking opioids again.

People need to be slowly weened off of opioids. Rajput said. Those who try to stop cold-turkey encounter pain, such as muscle ache and flu-like symptoms. The discomfort can be severe.

Many people suffer from anxiety and depression, along with chronic pain and addiction. They need to be treated to find the cause of pain. For those who have back or neck pain, Rajput might be able to do spine injections to help cut down on their use of opioid medications.

Very often, chronic pain and opioid use disorder go hand in hand, Rajput says. Opioid use disorder is defined as “a problematic pattern of opioid use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.”

When people die from drug overdoses, fentanyl is often found in their systems. Fentanyl is the strongest opioid pain killer, Rajput said.

Some steps have been taken to cut down on opioid use. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain.

In 2017, Nebraska introduced a prescription drug monitoring program that allows doctors to see how much opioid medication has been prescribed to a specific patient. But not all physicians use the program, Rajput said. More awareness is needed.

Insurance companies have started to put restrictions on how many pills can be prescribed, Rajput said. If a patient is suffering from acute pain, a doctor cannot prescribe more than seven days of medication unless the doctor indicates it’s chronic pain.

People who’ve had knee surgeries have had problems in the past, Rajput said. As a result, many surgeons have turned to non-narcotic treatment options before and after surgery. Many of those patients have done much better, he said. They have a lower use of opioids after surgery, better pain control “and then they’re able to go into rehab and do much better.”

Many medications that are legitimately prescribed wind up being used by people who shouldn’t be allowed to touch them.

A doctor might prescribe 120 pills of Percocet, for instance, to someone going through knee surgery. The patient might end up using only 10 of the pills.

The rest stay in the person’s medicine cabinet. Eventually, someone will come along and grab them. Oftentimes, those pills end up on the street, and are sold to people who abuse them, Rajput said.