Posted by LostBoyinNC45 on February 25, 2014, at 14:40:36 [reposted on February 26, 2014, at 1:58:04 | original URL]
In reply to Freedom of speech? Yeah, whatever. » LostBoyinNC45, posted by SLS on February 25, 2014, at 12:36:35
Scott,
It is a fact that opiate narcotics are not FDA approved for any psychiatric use. It is also a fact that to get bupe or morphine or other controlled, narcotic painkillers legally prescribed "off label" for psychiatric reasons, you normally must consult with an "expert" psychiatrist who advocates the use of such drugs in extremely drug resistant cases. Normally, that "expert" psychiatrist will be at a psychiatry department at a University teaching hospital where a lot of research is being conducted.
To let discussions go on here about these off label, highly scheduled and highly physically addictive drugs with serious legal consequences...is distasteful and foreseeably, dangerous.
As a concrete example I will use myself as an example. Over a decade ago, before I got on CPAP therapy, I was a very desperate individual who was a very sick man. I would browse this forum sometimes and other forums and various psychopharmacology websites I could find for any new info I could find on a prescription medication that might save my life and restore me to normal.
I read here many times about a "wonder drug" called "bupe." There were then and still are several "armchair Internet experts" here and elsewhere on the net who think "bupe" is the next best thing to sliced bread for clinical depression. Being a relative newbie and feeling sick as a dog and as I said, very desperate, I viewed these posts about "bupe" as authoritative. As maybe something that I should possibly look into for myself.
So I went to the psychiatrist I was seeing at the time and asked him about "bupe" and if it was a possibility. He became concerned acting and looking and said he does not prescribe "bupe" for depression and I noticed he wrote something down in my notes.
I went away not thinking very much about it, but years later when I got copies of my psychiatric records from that doctor, I noticed he had written down "drug seeking behavior for narcotics" in my psychiatric jacket. And that upset me a lot, because I have no history of any kind of substance abuse problems, just mental illness and sleep apnea.
Ive never even smoked a joint. Much less used any kind of narcotics, except as legally prescribed after major surgery such as after a tonsillectomy, after a knee surgery and once when I had a broken leg and injured knee.
I have wondered how many other psychiatric patients who have read this forum, naiive and not knowing "the big picture," have similarly done the same or similar.
Freedom of speech has its limits. It is illegal to shout "FIRE!!" in a crowded public place. I dont particularly care for the open and public discussion of some of the off label drugs that goes on this board and see it sort of as the same principle as shouting "FIRE!!!" in a crowded public place. Some of the details are obviously different, but it is foreseeable that if a severely ill person reads such discussion from "Internet experts" on a public forum, it could lead them to seek non FDA approved, off label prescription medications from physicians...whom do not want to get involved. And rightly so. And trash the patient on paper.
Narcotic addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to recover from and frequently results in the death of the individual. I dont know why "narcotics for depression" discussion is tolerated here.
Eric AKA "LostBoyinNC"
> > I have always been perplexed at how discussion of prescription opiate narcotics, prescribed "off label" for depression and anxiety...is tolerated at this forum
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> Do you embrace your freedom of speech to say such things? I do. Actually, it is my impression that it is more of a privilege than it is a civil right on Psycho-Babble. Whatever it may be, you are advocating for suppression of speech. LOL.
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> Why was Galileo Galilei not tolerated by the church for insisting that the sun was at the center of the solar system?
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> Off label?
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> You are no more a doctor to deem a treatment dangerous than others are to advocate it.
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> - Scott
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poster:LostBoyinNC45
thread:1061352
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20131217/msgs/1061355.html