I want to start by sharing a medical intervention I participated in a with a California pain clinic.  Bob had been treated by the clinic for the over two years with no apparent problems.  The first indication that something was wrong when the patient’s family members called saying they were upset because of Bob’s bizarre behaviors that included falling asleep in the middle of dinner and becoming emotionally volatile for no apparent reason. 

The family was concerned that Bob was over-medicated, but the quantity and type of medications being prescribed to him by the pain clinic could not account for his extreme behavior.  This raised a red flag for us and as part of our assessment of the situation we asked for a pharmaceutical printout from the state’s prescription monitoring agency. 

We discovered that Bob was receiving similar medications from three other providers filled at three different pharmacies.  We initiated a medical intervention and Bob was eventually referred to medical detoxification, addiction treatment, and concurrent integrated pain management.  Both Bob and his family now believe that this intervention saved his life.  Unfortunately, he could easily have been arrested and even incarcerated instead of focusing on his legitimate healthcare condition and treating it effectively.  This was a humane and effective use of the prescription medication registry system but sometimes this system is neither humane nor effective.

Prescription drug abuse and drug diversion is a big crisis in our country.  Some of the problem is because patients are lying to their doctors and/or going doctor shopping to make easy money.  Some people acquire extra cash by forging prescriptions or going pharmacy shopping:  They do this with an actual prescription that they alter and/or duplicate, then have it filled at different pharmacies.

Contrary to popular belief, a large percentage of prescription drug diversion for financial gain is done by healthcare providers, pharmacy employees, and others with access to medications. There are also people who have an addiction to prescription medication or other drugs (including alcohol) that use doctor or pharmacy shopping to manage their addiction.  And then there are the chronic pain patients who become addicted to their medication and end up either doctor or pharmacy shopping in an attempt to manage their pain.  The illegal diversion for financial gain obviously needs to include strong law enforcement interventions, but diversion by people who have an addictive disorder should be addressed primarily as a medical or public health issue. I’ll cover this in Part Two.

To learn more about ways to deal with the prescription drug abuse/addiction problem please check out my article Addressing the Problem of Prescription Drug Abuse-Addiction, that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people undergoing chronic pain management and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders including depression, addiction and other coexisting psychological disorders effectively please consider my book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

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