It's an old, tried and tested axiom of supply-side economics: To increase the demand for something, increase its supply. And demand will follow suit.
Manufacturers of narcotic painkillers handed out millions of dollars to this state's physicians between 2013 and 2016, and at least 800 people in Arkansas died from overdoses of opioids. Was that just a coincidence? Dr. Janet Cathey, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has reached her own conclusion on this contentious matter. And she wants to know: "How do doctors get away with it? Your ethical, legitimate doctors won't do this."
According to public-health records, there were 79 opioid pills prescribed for each of the state's almost 3 million people in 2016. That's a lot of pills.
For doctors, taking cash from drug companies is (apparently) nothing new. Your statewide newspaper's investigative team notes that most of the state's nearly 6,100 doctors take money from drug companies to plug various medicines. But there's a difference between promoting the latest statin and pushing an opioid.
Beware of attributing all trends in medicine or any other profession to a single cause. Let's remember that the same companies that manufacture pain pills also turn out non-narcotic medications and pay physicians to promote those drugs, too. A complicated field, epidemiology, and not one in which amateurs should reach their too-hasty conclusions. But do note that of the more than $58 million that makers of opioids paid this nation's physicians to conduct research from 2013 to 2016, only $8,000 went to studies specifically about opioids. Yet researchers at Harvard report that doctors who prescribe opioids most seem to get the most money from producers of opioids.
A similar outcome was reported out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where scholars found that doctors were much more likely to prescribe a drug pushed by a pharmaceutical company. And a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association came up with similar findings.
The figures don't lie--but liars have been known to figure. You decide, Gentle Reader, especially when your physician hands you a prescription for an expensive or addictive drug.
To quote UAMS' Dr. Cathey, "It became just so lucrative to be a pain doctor." And where there is lucre, there will always be those who want their share of it--for reasons beneficial to society or perhaps just to themselves. Follow the money and decide for yourself. For it's not just your money, Gentle Reader, but your health that's at stake.
Editorial on 04/17/2018