Drugs

I had two patients today of concern. One time, I dismissed a patient from my practice because of her husband. He wasn't giving her the medications that I wanted her to have. He was giving her the medications he wanted her to have. It wasn't working. I also think he was probably abusive. I have a patient with Parkinson's and it's very severe. He's old and he has severe dementia. His wife is giving him medications for delusions and hallucinations. His sons think she gives him too much medication. She asked me for something, and then she asked another doctor for something. It's never a good sign when there are two doctors trying to treat one condition. It's possible that she's treating him herself. Then, at the end of the day, I had a patient who has chronic headaches that don't respond to anything except narcotics. That's always a problem, because chronic headaches respond well to many other things. I think he just wants narcotics. I had to send him to another doctor, because anytime I don't completely trust a patient I know that I'm not really the best physician for them anymore.
There is a lot of abuse of prescription drugs by the patients and their families. It's actually very interesting. I'm not sure I entirely understand the whole thing. I think it comes from suffering and not wanting to be entirely aware of what reality is going on. Studies on drug addiction show changes in the way people's brains work. This is especially true with opioids. So at some point, the addiction actually changes the brain and promotes itself. It becomes its own disease. Then, it's very hard to sort out the psychological disturbance and the chemical imbalance. Some people can't function in our world. I wonder if there's something really wrong with these people? Maybe there's something wrong with the world because it can't fit them. Different cultures have different amounts of drug abuse. There is a high rate of drug abuse in America. Whenever there are cultural differences that are of a large magnitude, it raises the question of the role of the individual.
Anyway, these patients are not easy to treat.