Oxycodone - Are There Any Medical Reasons for Taking This Substance?

Are There Any Medical Reasons for Taking This Substance?

Almost everyone will experience a period of pain sometime in life. Doctors deliver babies, remove wisdom teeth, set broken bones, and perform surgery on the internal organs. In almost all of these cases, recovering patients receive some sort of opiate or opioidA substance created in a laboratory to mimic the effects of naturally occurring opiates such as heroin and morphine. painkiller for various periods of time after a medical procedure. Usually patients in these cases are eager to quit using the pain pills as they start feeling better. These patients either cease using the prescription drugs and move to over-the-counter drugs, or they just stop all pain medication.

OxyContin was released to the U.S. market at a time when patients and medical providers were voicing concerns about the need for better pain management for a number of chronic, or ongoing, pain disorders. Cancer patients often suffer a great deal of long-lasting pain as growing tumors press on nerves and vital organs. People with back injuries and herniated disksA rupture of a spinal disk that puts painful pressure on nerves in the spinal column. suffer constant pain that disrupts sleep and activity. Arthritis is a condition of abnormal bone growth that can cause intense pain, stiffness in joints, and difficulty in movement. Some types of nerve damage result in pain or numbness in the limbs, hands, and feet. Patients with these illnesses sometimes cannot function very well or at all without a treatment program of prescription pain relief.

When properly administered by a doctor who understands the properties of opiates, oxycodone products provide relief for moderate to severe pain without the more sedating side effects of morphine-derived medications. The products have a legitimate medical use.

No Relief for Those in True Need

"I went to pharmacies all up and down Broad Street, and none of them would fill my prescription. I say to the pharmacist, 'You know me. You know I have cancer. You know I need this.' But the pharmacist just looked at me and said, 'Can't do it, Joe. There's too much heat on us right now.'"

—Lung cancer patient Joseph Cassada, age 41, on his inability to fill a valid prescription for OxyContin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (This quote appeared in a September 4, 2001 Philadelphia Inquirer article by Elisa Ung.)