Around 60 percent of war veterans returning home from deployment in the Middle East suffer from some form of chronic pain. Opioid drugs epidemic is America's worst drug crisis to date.
In the past years, homecoming vets afflicted with chronic pain disorders such as back pains and other joint pains, the VA doled out opioid painkillers to ease these chronic pains.
From 2005 to 2015, opioid-use disorders continued to grow, with a 55 percent spike seen. Around 68,000 veterans who represent about 13 percent of the total population of veterans are currently hooked on the drugs.
In 2012, at the height of the opioid use epidemic, the VA started rethink how they treat patients with chronic pain disorder. Instead of prescribing opioids, doctors from VA started looking at other forms of therapy to alleviate pain.
VA's deputy under secretary for health and organizational excellence, Dr. Carolyn Clancy, states that the VA had made substantial progress and reported a significant decrease in opioid drugs prescription.
However, the VA does acknowledge shortcomings in their handling of veterans with chronic pain. Doctors do not have time to follow up on individual cases and there is uneven access to care, according to a report by the PBS.
Many medical clinicians feel that the VA is mishandling how they treat the veterans. Dr. Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization, Phoenix House, states that the VA is doing an awful job in handling this issue.
Before cutting off the veterans from opioid and before alternative therapies can work, the VA should first tend to the addicts that the agency has created according to Dr. Kolodny.
In 2011, Dr. Peter Marshall, head of Minneapolis VA's pain management staff, launched the Opioid Safety Initiative. He and his team sent letters to primary care doctors offering to help wean the patients off of the highly addictive painkillers.
In 2014, high-dosage prescriptions at Minneapolis VA was down by 90 percent. Dr. Marshall further stated that they did not have any plans to cut off anybody, but they were telling patients that it is not safe for them to continue prescribing these medications as was reported by Star Tribune.
