Good grief they've approved OxyContin for five year olds

[malaise]

no other words

[Psephos]

33. What's wrong with you?

It's for excruciating pain.

In children.

[Stellar]

2. " FDA Okays OxyContin for Some Pediatric Patients"

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the opioid oxycodone (OxyContin, Purdue Pharma LP) for pediatric patients aged 11 to 16 years with pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/849511

still bs.

[Hortensis]

20. Oxycontin's for severe pain. We'd all beg for our child to have it if needed. On our knees.

[pnwmom]

21. +1000

[Go Vols]

22. Couldn't agree more

[lunamagica]

43. + a million

[TheSarcastinator]

64. thank you for saying this

the self-righteous chest pounding was getting to be too much to bear.

[DawgHouse]

3. I'm only finding links that say it's been approved for 11 - 16 year olds.

I agree this drug is abused and over prescribed but can you point me to where you found the info?

[Live and Learn]

4. I could see cases where it might be needed like young cancer patients.

But I would hope it would be used only in such cases.

[pnwmom]

5. Five year olds die of cancer, sadly, and before that they suffer pain. They need to know

what doses to give a young child.

Only someone who has never suffered with a dying child could post something like this.

[tammywammy]

6. They approved it for ages 11+

They're are children in severe pain due to cancer like you said, but also due to severe teams or major invasive surgery.

[malaise]

8. ABC news said five year olds

I still find this scary

[malaise]

14. I concede the need for pain mangement

As I wrote elsewhere, I associate the drug with the Scumbaugh's of the planet

[LuvNewcastle]

37. Doctors around here are even scared to

write scripts for Norco these days. My doctor, who I'm about to quit after 15 years, wouldn't even write me a script for a muscle relaxer last week. I was lying on the floor at work and wasn't able to get up for a long time. He told me to tell my employer to find me an easier job. I almost punched him. I hope he goes through something like that one day. Piece of shit.

[Syzygy321]

52. Judging others is easy.

I have compassion.

But when it got back to me that my name came up in a meeting of narcotics anonymous - "go to her; she was easy to fool" -

I stopped being as credulous as I had been.

Oddly, people oppose the war on drugs; they oppose doctors who don't give pain meds out freely enough; they oppose doctor's who give meds out too freely and "get them hooked", they oppose putting drug users in jail; they oppose people driving under the influence and killing folks; they oppose drug sellers enticing their own children; they oppose the torment and slavery of addiction.

Out of all these issues, please find the perfect solution.

[Syzygy321]

55. FYI bone cancer patients -

get all the pain control scrips they want.

(Though they still often live in pain because if they take enough narcs to completely hide the pain, the side effects of opiates will be worse than they want: they may become obtunded, constipated, unable to interact with family or drink enough or work with physical therapists.)

Pain control in suffering people is often a really hard thing to do successfully. That's why whole specialties are devoted to it.

The meme of "people dying of cancer can't get narcotics because of the DEA" is true nowhere I have worked.

Cancer patients get marinol too if they want it - thoigh it doesn't work well in my experience. And while pot is not exactly legal in my state, I don't know a doctor who frowns on.a cancer patient using it, if it helps.

[Syzygy321]

58. I think the NA guy was chatting privately with his friends...

one of whom happened to be a friend of a colleague, so it got back to me.

I have been to twelve step meetings and I am sure his comment wouldn't have been tolerated out in the open. Too many serious people in NA, trying to get over the addiction they wish they didn't have.

I will look up the 35-yrs-in-prison guys. I don't know that story.

[Syzygy321]

60. It doesn't work.

But will the alternatives be better?

[Syzygy321]

61. LOL I looked up Richard Paey on Wiki.

From the flow of our exchanges above, I had assumed he was a bone cancer patient who couldn't get pain relief, so he turned to a dealer, was caught by the uncompassionate System, and then spent 25 years in prison.

(Which seemed a surprisingly long life for a guy with bone cancer.)

[Syzygy321]

63. No no - what happened to him was terrible

I am just laughing at my misunderstanding.

[tammywammy]

15. Do you not think there are children in severe pain?

[Mariana]

29. Better that they should suffer

than that they might take a "scary" drug that relieves the pain, I guess. Yes, lets let kids with cancer, burns, severe injuries, major surgery, etc. scream in agony because some people get high on oxycodone.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

53. Little kids don't "doctor shop" for pain meds!

If the physician is prescribing it, it is because they damn well need it!

[CountAllVotes]

9. +1000

It is a shame that this is how bad chronic pain patients (child or not) are being demonized isn't it?

[TeeYiYi]

7. This is a good thing.

Previously, the Fentanyl patch was the only game in town for extended release pain relief for children. The patch is a nightmare of inconsistent pain relief; a rollercoaster of hideous withdrawal symptoms between patches.

TYY

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Giving controlled doses of Oxycontin to paediatric cancer patients...

is probably much better than the days when tincture of opium was sold as "soothing syrup" for teething and colic (how many kids died of an inadvertent paregoric overdose, back when you could just buy that stuff without a prescription?)

[malaise]

11. Thanks for the education

I associate the drug with the Rush Scumbaugh's of the planet

[MicaelS]

23. Then that is your error.

I am for whatever pain management is needed for whatever patient at whatever age. No one should have to suffer if relief is available. Certainly not because of outsider politics. And certainly not because of government bullshit. My doctor says he has to watch what he prescribes for pain management, lest the government come down on him like a ton of bricks.

[malaise]

24. Sure it is

but it is also one of serious prescription drugs which is the worry.

[Mariana]

30. Children screaming in agony worry me a lot more

than the fact that some people use a drug that can ease their pain to get high.

[midnight]

40. I agree. This is a serious problem and is interfering in patient and doctor relationship.

[smirkymonkey]

17. I remember getting cough syrup with codeine when I was a child.

It tasted horrible, but it completely knocked me out and relived my misery. I kind of liked it. Unfortunately, I seem to have developed an allergy to opiates as an adult. The last few surgeries I have had (knee surgery, broken arm) I was given Oxy, Percodan, etc and I broke out in hives and was projectile vomiting. Had to go off them and just take Tylenol or Advil. It' was horrible. It's funny how I could tolerate it as a child and become allergic as an adult.

[Thor_MN]

35. Cough syrup with codeine as a child had me wandering down inside the weave of a bedspread...

When Steve Martin came out with his bit about getting small, I knew what he was talking about.

[smirkymonkey]

38. Yeah, that was good stuff, wasn't it?

[yellowcanine]

41. I hate codeine. Gives me bad headaches.

Bleh! I would rather have the cough than take codeine.

[smirkymonkey]

42. As an adult it makes me violently ill for some reason, but I could tolerate it as

a child. I am not quite sure why or when the allergy kicked in.

[DawgHouse]

46. I'm allergic too but wasn't when I was younger.

No vomiting but horrendous hives from head to toe.

[AtomicKitten]

16. For kids as young as 11 years old, not 5.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-approves-oxycontin-children-young-11-n409621

[rexcat]

18. Here is the link to the FDA approved package insert...

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/022272s027lbl.pdf

There is nothing on the FDA website that indicates OxiContin has been approved for five year olds. Thanks malaise for the false report! If you are going to post something please have the courtesy to include a link.

Per the current FDA approved package insert OxiContin is approved for patients 11 and up. For those who don't understand, children do get cancer and other maladies that cause intractable pain. Drugs like OxyContin are important in treating such pain when it can't be controlled by other less powerful analgesics. Not to prescribe such drugs to children 11 years and up who have severe uncontrolled pain is barbaric. If anyone here thinks it is wrong to prescribe these types of drugs to someone with intractable pain I say you have no humanity and no soul.

OxiContin and other opioids are much harder to prescribe now because of the restrictions placed on physicians by the FDA and DEA. Because of the prescribing restrictions of opioids there is now a heroin epidemic in this country. There were physicians who over prescribed OxiContin and similar drugs but that has been halted, which is a good thing, but for those who got addicted to opioids they are now using heroin, which is not a good thing.

Because of heroin use HIV and Hepatitis C infections are on the rise. It is extremely costly to treat these conditions. It is shameful of this country to treat drug addicts as criminals instead of someone with a medical problem. For those who have posted to this thread, OxiContin is not over prescribed as it once was. Unfortunately the people who really need this drug or similar drugs have a much tougher time getting prescriptions and the prescriptions are for shorter duration. Pharmacies are reporting all opioid prescriptions they fill to the DEA. If a physician is not on the list to prescribe opioids the prescription will not be filled and the prescriber is reported to the DEA and that individual is investigated.

Sorry to bother some of you with facts but there is too much misinformation out there on this topic.

on edit - minor change to second paragraph.

[GusBob]

19. Let them suffer

/sarcasm/

[TheFrenchRazor]

34. yep. jeez. nt

[NutmegYankee]

26. "no other words"

What!? Don't you have empathy for the pain of a child suffering from major injuries/surgery/ or cancer?

I'll tell you what leaves me fucking speechless - this OP!!!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

27. That's Rush Limbaugh's emotional age.

So I'm sure he's quite pleased.

[mucifer]

28. Pediatric hospice nurse here

Yes, we give our very young patients morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, dilaudid, and methadone. We administer these meds to kids far younger than 5 years old. At times we administer them IV. No regrets. Some have tumors growing like crazy in their little bodies pressing on their organs. Do you know what that feels like? I sure don't. Some have diseases that tear off their skin and cause wounds that won't heal and horrible disfiguration. Some have terrible air hunger and narcotics help. Some have nasty dystonia from genetic neurologic syndromes where their bodies twist and their faces become red from holding their breath and they cry and cry.

Why should adults and the elderly have access to medications that help their pain and suffering, but not small children?

Do you really think children don't feel pain?

[slipslidingaway]

32. Thank you for what you do :) n/t

[malaise]

36. You are correct

and you are the expert

[DawgHouse]

48. You are a kind person. Thank you.

[Syzygy321]

56. Thanks for all you do.

[LeftyMom]

31. Breaking news: kids get cancer and have severe accidents and need surgery.

You don't treat that with those little orange chewable aspirin.

[dembotoz]

39. I remember my mother in law question my wife getting opiates due to cancer

The oncologist said addiction was truly the very least of my wife's worries


And he was right

[DawgHouse]

47. Seriously people just need to think!

My Grandmother was getting opiates for cancer and some family members were all aflutter that she "might get addicted". They gave her all kinds of crap about it to the point that she endured unnecessary pain because of their meddling.

[jwirr]

44. And then they will wonder why they have so many children with addiction.

Out here on the reservation this is one of the drugs that we have an epidemic addiction problem with. And what we are seeing is that children are also suffering from this. Suffering and dying. I guess that is okay with all of you. Doctor induces addictions are out biggest problems.

My grandson's ex is one of those users and while visiting her his son found one of her doctor prescribed pills on the floor. He was taken to the hospital and almost died. She is still using but she no longer gets to see him alone. Now that she has supervised visitations she does not show up. So she is out of his life. She was addicted as a child (under 10 years of age) and I seriously doubt that she will ever quit. If she will not quit after almost killing her child - what could possibly make her quit after all these years.

While I can see using it for severe pain I hope that it is not used like it is for adults.

[Humanist_Activist]

45. What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you think children should suffer in extreme pain?

No, seriously, what the fuck is the point of your post?

[nashville_brook]

51. +10000

a time-release regimen actually makes more sense for a child in pain -- the fewer pills to swallow, and dosages to monitor, the better the outcome for the child.

[DawgHouse]

49. Apparently some take "Suffer the little children" much too literally.

[TheSarcastinator]

65. Good Grief, You're Self Righteous and Uninformed!

Panic! Hysteria, Idiotic support for the drug war as long as its not against weed!

You've been propagandized by prohibitionist drug war nonsense just like the folks who think cannabis is a gateway drug. They've got stoners attacking legal narcotics because they feel the need to shift boogeyman status onto another substance - it's a brilliant tactic. Stop doing their work for them, please, and stop feeding in the hysteria and nonsense.