That's quite a big if. If it were true then hospitals should drop the use of opioids for any type of pain management to zero. Even with the opioid epidemic in the U.S. I've never heard anyone advocate such a radical position.
> perhaps consider not doing heroin?
In a lot of cases in the U.S. opioids were pushed to treat types of pain for which they have been shown to be ineffective. So the patient needed to take more than the proscribed amount of a drug that was more addictive than a pricier alternative therapy or treatment. I can't find the source for that atm, but it appears that prescription rates are significantly higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries[1].
So to answer your question-- no. Turning down a painkiller for a pricier alternative treatment requires both a) having disposable income and b) having sufficient time and expertise to do a research project on both the effectiveness of the suggested opioid painkiller and effectiveness of alternatives. And that is assuming one would somehow know a priori to disregard entirely the advice of their own medical doctor. It's simply not serious public policy to suggest that everybody just take on burdensome, life-altering levels of pain to avoid the vaguely-worded danger that an addiction robs one of their soul.
That's quite a big if. If it were true then hospitals should drop the use of opioids for any type of pain management to zero. Even with the opioid epidemic in the U.S. I've never heard anyone advocate such a radical position.
> perhaps consider not doing heroin?
In a lot of cases in the U.S. opioids were pushed to treat types of pain for which they have been shown to be ineffective. So the patient needed to take more than the proscribed amount of a drug that was more addictive than a pricier alternative therapy or treatment. I can't find the source for that atm, but it appears that prescription rates are significantly higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries[1].
So to answer your question-- no. Turning down a painkiller for a pricier alternative treatment requires both a) having disposable income and b) having sufficient time and expertise to do a research project on both the effectiveness of the suggested opioid painkiller and effectiveness of alternatives. And that is assuming one would somehow know a priori to disregard entirely the advice of their own medical doctor. It's simply not serious public policy to suggest that everybody just take on burdensome, life-altering levels of pain to avoid the vaguely-worded danger that an addiction robs one of their soul.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/12/28...