Chronic Pain and Florida’s New Pain Law
Feb 6th, 2012 by admin
Florida’s new pain law may make some doctors reticent to prescribe narcotic pain medications. Although these regulations are intended to prevent doctors from over prescribing, under-treatment of chronic pain is also a problem. Talk to your doctor about your concerns. A red flag for some doctors may be a patient who asks for a particular drug and dosage. This may cause some doctors to believe that the patient has an agenda (selling or abusing) so let the doctor decide what is best for you and why.
Keep in mind that some conditions may make it difficult or impossible for you to metabolize pain medications in a healthy manner and the doctor must consider this as well.
Also keep in mind that some medications or predispositions can interfere with pain medications. For exmaple, if you have a problem with addiction, both you and your physician need to seriously discuss the dangers of a potentially addictive medication.
Finally, if you are taking medications due to chronic pain, your physician should ask you to submit to random drug screening. The doctor will want to confirm that the medications being prescribed are in your system and not being sold or otherwise disposed of. Failure to submit to a drug screening will often result in the doctor releasing you from his or her practice. It is very important to take your medications as prescribed so that you will receive the best benefit from the medication.
If you have any questions regarding a Social Security Disability and/or Supplemental Security Income claim, please do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation at 352-629-0480 or visit our website at www.ocalaw.com
