Two medical groups yesterday urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to relax the restrictions on opioids for patients with end-stage non-cancer diseases and people older than 65, to help relieve their pain.
On this year’s Global Day Against Pain yesterday, the Taiwan Pain Society and the Taiwan Academy of Hospice Palliative Medicine said the tight restrictions on prescribing controlled pain relievers have forced many chronically ill patients to have to endure pain.
Taiwan Pain Society director and physician at Mackay Memorial Hospital’s Department of Anesthesiology Lin Chia-Shiang (林嘉祥) said that many older people suffer chronic pain from degenerative joint diseases, backache, spinal stenosis, post-herpetic neuralgia or neuropathy, and the prevalence is between 45 and 80 percent.
According to an overseas study, about 28 percent of patients with non-cancer diseases have thought about taking their own lives due to the constant pain, he said, adding that when other types of painkillers cannot stop the pain, in between 70 and 80 percent of cases the pain can be controlled by the use of opioids.
However, the tight restrictions on the drugs make it difficult for these patients to get a prescription for opioids, because they need to get the approval of physicians in several different departments, prescriptions are limited to 14 days and the approvals need to be renewed every six months, Lin said.
“Some older patients who even have trouble turning their body over in bed have to call an ambulance to take them to hospital every time they need to get a new prescription from the doctor,” he said.
“Many chronic pain and intractable pain sufferers are in pain every day, from the moment they wake up in the morning,” Taiwan Academy of Hospice Palliative Medicine director Weng Yih-chyang (翁益強) said.
A study has shown that about 70 percent of end-stage non-cancer patients suffer severe pain, Weng said.
The groups said that while an estimated 400,000 people suffer from moderate to severe pain from non-cancer diseases, only about 800 prescriptions have been granted because the procedure to prescribe opioids is so complicated.
Lin said if the government is afraid of drug addiction, it should re-educate physicians to prescribe medication only for those suffering chronic pain.
In response, Food and Drug Administration Division of Controlled Drugs head Ho Shu-hui (何淑惠) said the tight restrictions on opioids are to protect patients, because abusive use of painkillers can lead to drug addition.
She said having the patient revisit a doctor regularly is a mechanism by which the doctor can adjust the dosage and be made aware of any possible side effects, Ho said, adding that the agency would continue to communicate with physicians and specialists about the issue.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS