Matthew Perry- “I wonder how much this moron will pay”

[GoodieMcTwoshoes]

Sorry if there's a recent thread, it doesn't show up in search.

Apparently his doctors took advantage of his vulnerability and discussed things like “I wonder how much this moron will pay.” Matthew Perry: Two doctors among five charged over ketamine-related death | Evening Standard

That's awful. :(

Its a shame it took the death of an actor from a third rate sitcom
to unearth this. If it had been an average Joe, no one would have cared.

'@mathanxiety Doctors in the US' do not 'give them away like candy.

I’ve lived in the US for 20 years and that was not my personal experience. I also had many friends getting hooked up on opiates thanks to doctors prescriptions due to injuries, accidents etc… once my friends were unable to get them prescribed they would turn into the dark web to buy them. Clearly we’ve had different experiences when it come to American healthcare and that’s OK.

just so appalling

I though that opioids are only used here for end of life care and short term chronic pain. Obviously there are a lot of people addicted to OTC painkillers but they are no where near as strong and lethal as something like oxy. I've never heard of people being prescribed strong opiates in the UK for chronic pain, because it's not effective treatment. 'Breakthrough pain' is simply a marketing tool that the saklers came up with when patients complained that the effects didn't last any where near 12 hours. They knew the time release stuff was essentially BS. It was all lies to make Drs feel comfortable prescribing in a way they never would have before.

I was offered morphine patches for chronic arthritic pain in my spine. I declined them because I want a quality of life and felt a reliance on strong opioids would disable me more than the pain does, so yes, they do offer them here in chronic situations where the condition is untreatable.

@Grandmasswagbag am on opiates for chronic nerve pain, and know few others who are too (with ms)

Just because they have a medical degree doesn’t make them any better whatsoever, they’re just a legally licensed drug dealer. It pisses me off no end that someone’s qualifications or career is taken into account when being sentenced for a crime. Should have received the exact same punishment.

Of course there are people living with chronic pain who benefit from opioid, and they are also used for acute pain, there is a lot of fear and ignorance around their use and many people can live with them for years. Nerve pain is awful, I have every sympathy with you. Not sure there is such a thing as short term chronic pain. Chronic pain is any pain that's lasted for more than 3 months,

It's worth reading the medical saga of elvis presley to get a better understanding of it

Agree sentencing should be the same, but it sounds like bail was not granted to the dealer because she’s a dual national (presumably of a country with no extradition treaty with US) who was considered a significant flight risk. Whereas most doctors, even dodgy ones, don’t have the underworld connections to get themselves smuggled out of the country.

Most people charged with dealing would get granted bail - she’s being treated unusually harshly rather than him being treated leniently.

I agree.

Where did you read about him leaving anything to his assistant?
I thought he left everything to his family in his will.

As Username said, yes people can get them for chronic pain here. And they can grow very attached to them.

Yep

You've only got to spend a few months working in home care to see how attached people are to their pain relief.

It's the reason they get so nasty when carers are late through no fault of their own.

I'd say 30-40% of the elderly I go to are drug addicts.

ketamine is highly addictive

Years ago, Ketamine wouldn'tve been viewed as addictive. In the 90s/early 00s, people took it with the expectation of getting a lot of very convincing hallucinations. They weren't taking it for relaxation (surprisingly, as it's an anaesthetic.) I never took it thankfully, but that's what people described.

Maybe the dose people take has changed a lot.

Also he was an addict, he shouldn'tve been prescribed anything that can give someone any kind of 'hit.' But I suppose if anything made him feel better, he might've got hooked on it.

Ketamine is highly fashionable at the moment and a lot of young people are having serious bladder issues as a result.

Really. Are you a doctor specialising in the treatment of chronic pain. What do you mean they get nasty.

I know quite a lot about Elvis. His "doctor"/drug-pusher, Dr Nick, was so notorious that he had a Simpsons character of the same name based on him. His medical licence was eventually permanently revoked for a history of mass overprescribing. Elvis naively trusted him because he was a "doctor" and therefore saw the drugs he was taking as "good" for him.

Are you a doctor specialising in the treatment of chronic pain

No, I'm a home care assistant and have been for many years.

What do you mean they get nasty.

I mean that if the carers arrive late at their house to administer medication and that medication is pain relief then the clients often complain about the carers arriving late. They are rude and agressive towards the carers who arrive late, usually due to traffic problems. It's because they've become addicted to their pain relief and are sat anxiously waiting for their next dose. It's very common and very sad.

Maybe your clients need a medication review, have the doctors or district nurses reviewed their pain meds recently so that they are not left in pain.

Cupid is not saying anything controversial- anyone who's had much to do with a healthcare setting will know how some patients/clients act towards HCAs etc, and that a response to/relationship with medication might be part of it, makes perfect sense.

Maybe your clients need a medication review, have the doctors or district nurses reviewed their pain meds recently so that they are not left in pain.

@MissMoneyFairy Sadly there's only so much that can be done, before the dose of a med would have a worse impact on the person's health than the pain. It's a delicate balance the whole time.

Plus some people genuinely are drug seekers. It's not necessarily their 'fault',' there can be all sorts of reasons for it such as loneliness, mental health etc.

They are absolutely prescribed (and widely prescribed) in the UK for chronic pain.

Not 30-40% of all patients though… I think that is what people are taking issue with.

Hold that beer.

I'm sorry to say that there is already concern about opioid addiction relating to prescription opioids in the UK, whether prescribed or sourced elsewhere.

Prescribing guidelines have changed since 2016, with effects being monitored.
The vast majority (over 75%) of people abusing opioid painkillers in the US received their drugs from friends or relatives for free, stole from friends or relatives, bought them on the street, or received from more than one medical prescriber. A tick over one-fifth was from a single HCP (doctor or PA).
www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_2686/ShortReport-2686.html

A DC of mine is a doctor working in an area of the US that is medically underserved, and it is common knowledge among doctors there that the vast majority of opioid addiction cases from thensurrounding counties that are seen in the local hospital system are the result of PAs having prescription privileges.

With the spread of PAs in the NHS, it will be very important to keep prescription pads away from them and to ensure that they do not as a body fall under the umbrella of any powerful lobby within the medical profession that will hamper strict supervision.

I think that we are fortunate in the UK that we've seen what's happened in Canada/the US with Fentanyl and that's meant we've managed to avoid it being a worse problem than it could've been, because doctors try to prescribe it cautiously.

We've seen what happened over there and also we know what happened with valium etc and how many people ended up hooked on that, so these two examples have meant doctors try to prescribe opioids carefully.

But the reality is they're still used quite a bit, because they work. Most of us may be on them at some point in our lives.