Doctors are more likely to prescribe highly-addictive opiates for pain to post-9/11 veterans with mental health issues, than to veterans without diagnosed mental health problems. That's according to a new study conducted by the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers looked at the health records of more than 140,000 veterans for the study. They found doctors were more likely to prescribe opiates to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if they had already been diagnosed with a mental health issue like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety.
Dr. Karen Seal of SFVAMC wrote in her article about the study:
Seal recommends that doctors look to other methods of controlling pain for veterans who suffer from PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues - because veterans with these problems are more likely to "self-medicate" with opiates, and that can lead to abuse, addition, and violence.
Here's a video of Dr. Seal describing her research, courtesy of JAMA:
