Health
Heavy drinkers use narcotics for back pain despite warnings
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 2, 2004
Despite warnings about combining prescribed narcotics with alcohol, many patients with chronic back pain continue to mix the two, says a study in the December 2003 issue of Disability and Rehabilitation.
Researchers recruited nearly 300 University of Michigan Health System patients who had debilitating back pain for at least three months. Subjects underwent a comprehensive assessment including psychological and physical function tests.
The women in the study drank little, although researchers suggest that actual consumption might have been underreported. A significant number of the men were heavy drinkers and continued to take pain pills.
Authors suggested that this finding might require a physician to probe a bit deeper into a patient's drinking habits before prescribing painkillers.
"Most doctors probably do ask their patients in general terms about alcohol use, but they may not be very sophisticated in their approach to quantifying it," said Ethan Booker, MD, co-author and an emergency medicine resident at the University of Chicago.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/02/02/hlbf0202.htm.
