Dr Gerald M Sacks, the Director of Pain Management at the Pain Institute of Santa Monica, is an anesthesiologist who provides pain relief during and after an operation, and treats acute and long-standing pain problems. He addresses the issues of opioid dependency and believes that patients continue to take these medicines far beyond the period of which time their pain was occurring.
He further states that OIC must be a normal part of each patient’s visit. They must be asked about the quality of pain, its intensity, how often it occurs, and what they are doing to increase their pain, whether pharmacologically, using physical therapy modalities or lifestyle changes. He further shares that addressing patients with OIC needs to be the part of review system. Moreover, the physicians need to ask the question in a manner so you can get appropriate answer from the patient.
Dr Gerald M Sacks further shares the importance of being proactive in addressing OIC early on with patients and shares advice for providers. Mostly practitioners as well as the patients are aware of the fact that opioids cause constipation. However, there is a misunderstanding that it is not treatable. According to Dr Sacks, the practitioners need to focus on the diagnosis.
Overall, the practitioners need to spend a fair amount of time to judge how is their OIC and whether it is improving or not. These are important things to understand where the patient stands. A good practitioner will evaluate the diagnosis at every visit and will determine the appropriate treatment.
Comments
Post a Comment