Military Prescribing Massive Amounts of Pain Medication; Punishes Those Who Become Dependent

by: Ernie1812

Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 14:32:39 PM EDT

USA Today: Troops reportedly popping more painkillers

Narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured U.S. troops have jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began, raising concerns about the drugs' potential abuse and addiction, a leading Army pain expert said.

The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics and don't manage pain with a complex array of treatments, said Army Col. Chester "Trip" Buckenmaier III, director of the Acute Pain Service Management Initiative at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

By 2005, two years into the war, narcotic painkillers were the most abused drug in the military, according to a survey that year of 16,146 servicemembers.

Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.

"The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs," said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.

Pain is the most common complaint of nearly 350,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, says Robert Kerns, national program director for pain management. A study of VA health records estimates that nearly half of those patients suffer chronic pain, severe enough in about 30% of those cases to limit daily living.

USA Today: Prescription drug abuse hits Mo. Army unit hard

In 2003 Spc. Jeremy Thompson injured his shoulder, the Army prescribed painkillers and deployed him to Iraq.

During his first tour in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 his shoulder would slip out of place whenever he tried to move something heavy. Once, a medic gave him morphine before placing his foot against Thompson's shoulder and twisting his arm to pop it back in place, he said.

When he returned to Fort Leonard Wood, he said, doctors recommended physical therapy and continued giving him painkillers until he deployed to Iraq again in 2005, Thompson said in interviews and testimony.

By the time he returned home in 2006, Thompson was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. An MRI also showed he needed shoulder surgery, he said, but that was delayed.

Thompson said he had become physically dependent on the narcotics. He also liked how they made him feel. His first Percocet prescription was for 30 pills a month, and doctors eventually raised that to 240 pills for 30 days.

Thompson knew it was wrong, he said, and asked his squad leader about enrolling in the Army Substance Abuse Program. The sergeant, he said, told him that admitting his dependence would ruin his career.

Thompson had shoulder surgery in January but still had pain, according to medical records provided by his attorney. He kept abusing drugs.

The prosecutions gutted the 509th Engineer Company.

"It took almost half the company," Staff Sgt. James Gregory testified. Many are combat veterans. Some are married with children. One, Spc. Kenneth White, became addicted to medication after he suffered blast-related wounds, according to his lawyer, Anita Gorecki. A recent seizure delayed his trial, she says.

Thompson, 26, pleaded guilty at a court-martial in May to illegally using and distributing prescription drugs, which he shared with 11 other soldiers. An installation spokeswoman, Tiffany Wood, said six soldiers have been convicted of drug charges and seven await trial.