Humble Observer - News
Family clinic reaches out to people with pain pill addiction
By KEVIN KOLOIAN
It wasn’t Sherry Matthews’ intention to treat patients for pain medication addiction when she opened We Care Affordable Health Care in Spring a year and a half ago, but now it accounts for 40 percent of her business.
“We were seeing people for chronic pain and quickly realized that this is a problem,” Matthews said. “It has changed our efforts toward more of a family wellness arena.”
Whenever a new patient comes in asking for pain medication, the clinic does a routine background check and contacts the Texas Department of Public Safety to see a if they are “doctor hoppers.”
If a red flag goes up, alerting the clinic that the patient has been going to different doctors to refill their pill supply, nurse practitioner Melissa Hance, sits them down and explains the detox program.
Hance said patients are usually open and honest with themselves or don’t even realize they had a problem but are willing listeners.
“If the patient doesn’t understand the process or the confidentially of it, they are never going to break that cycle, so I start out by saying: ‘This is the medication you are putting in your body and this is why you are feeling the way you do when you don’t have this medication,’” Hance said.
She then tells them the steps they need to take to kick their habit, making clear that it is not going to be easy.
“She told me when you get up everyday, you’ll feel like you’ve been in a car wreck,” said a patient who chooses to be anonymous. “But everyday when I get up I feel a little bit better and a little bit better.”
Hance has weaned the patient off pain pills and decreased the doses of her antidepressants.
For emotional support, the clinic makes itself available to patients’ after-hours phone calls.
Support on all fronts is needed, Hance said, because pain pill addiction is just as hard to kick as heroin addiction.
She explained that the opiates combine so strongly with the receptors in a person’s brain that the minute that receptor doesn’t have that opiate on it it starts “freaking out.” When that happens the patient begins having side effects like chills, vomiting, nausea and diarrhea, she said.
“It’s enough to send someone over the deep end. That’s why they start taking more pills because they know the minute they take that pill it’s all going to go away,” Hance said.
Having a conversation with anywhere from 15 to 20 people about their pain medication on a weekly basis, Hance said, addiction to hydrocodone is the main drug the clinic deals with as well as Xanax and Soma.
When someone chooses not to get help after they’ve been told they are breaking the law by overmedicating themselves, the clinic gets the police involved.
Those who decide to get help face a short but intense recovery program.
“After two weeks of treatment they are usually pretty good,” Hance said. “If they ever feel the need to take a pain medication, I have them call me to suggest an alternative medication so they don’t get hooked again.”
“We were seeing people for chronic pain and quickly realized that this is a problem,” Matthews said. “It has changed our efforts toward more of a family wellness arena.”
Whenever a new patient comes in asking for pain medication, the clinic does a routine background check and contacts the Texas Department of Public Safety to see a if they are “doctor hoppers.”
If a red flag goes up, alerting the clinic that the patient has been going to different doctors to refill their pill supply, nurse practitioner Melissa Hance, sits them down and explains the detox program.
Hance said patients are usually open and honest with themselves or don’t even realize they had a problem but are willing listeners.
“If the patient doesn’t understand the process or the confidentially of it, they are never going to break that cycle, so I start out by saying: ‘This is the medication you are putting in your body and this is why you are feeling the way you do when you don’t have this medication,’” Hance said.
She then tells them the steps they need to take to kick their habit, making clear that it is not going to be easy.
“She told me when you get up everyday, you’ll feel like you’ve been in a car wreck,” said a patient who chooses to be anonymous. “But everyday when I get up I feel a little bit better and a little bit better.”
Hance has weaned the patient off pain pills and decreased the doses of her antidepressants.
For emotional support, the clinic makes itself available to patients’ after-hours phone calls.
Support on all fronts is needed, Hance said, because pain pill addiction is just as hard to kick as heroin addiction.
She explained that the opiates combine so strongly with the receptors in a person’s brain that the minute that receptor doesn’t have that opiate on it it starts “freaking out.” When that happens the patient begins having side effects like chills, vomiting, nausea and diarrhea, she said.
“It’s enough to send someone over the deep end. That’s why they start taking more pills because they know the minute they take that pill it’s all going to go away,” Hance said.
Having a conversation with anywhere from 15 to 20 people about their pain medication on a weekly basis, Hance said, addiction to hydrocodone is the main drug the clinic deals with as well as Xanax and Soma.
When someone chooses not to get help after they’ve been told they are breaking the law by overmedicating themselves, the clinic gets the police involved.
Those who decide to get help face a short but intense recovery program.
“After two weeks of treatment they are usually pretty good,” Hance said. “If they ever feel the need to take a pain medication, I have them call me to suggest an alternative medication so they don’t get hooked again.”
Copyright © 2009 - Houston Community Newspapers Online