Travis Rieder: The agony of opioid withdrawal -- and what doctors should tell patients about it
Travis Rieder: A agonia do desmame de opioides - e o que os médicos devem dizer aos doentes
Travis Rieder wants to help find a solution to America’s opioid crisis -- and if that sounds a bit too lofty, he’d settle for making clear, incremental progress in a responsible, evidence-based way. Full bio
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anda a tomar?"
that changed my life.
que mudou a minha vida.
I nearly lost my foot
de quase ter perdido um pé
do meu cirurgião ortopédico
surgeon's office
oxycodone," I responded.
de oxicodona", respondi.
this information to many doctors
esta informação a muitos médicos,
olhou para mim e disse:
about getting off the meds now."
com esses medicamentos".
that anyone had expressed concern.
se mostrou preocupado.
real conversation I'd had
a sério que eu tinha
my entire experience of medical trauma.
toda a minha experiência de trauma médico.
is a much too aggressive tapering regimen,
de desmame demasiado agressivo,
my medication into four doses,
a medicação em quatro doses,
over the course of the month.
ao longo de um mês.
into acute opioid withdrawal.
para um desmame exagerado de opioides.
feel a lot like a bad case of the flu.
foram parecidas com uma gripe forte.
in my rather mangled foot;
no meu pé mutilado.
due to a general feeling of restlessness.
devido a uma sensação geral de agitação.
what was coming.
o que estava para vir.
a minha vida piorou muito.
seemed to go haywire.
parecia estar descontrolado.
quase permanentemente
into the hot August sun,
para o sol quente de agosto,
covered in goosebumps.
sleep difficult during that first week
o sono durante a primeira semana
as the withdrawal feeling.
ser a sensação de abstinência.
that would keep me twitching.
que me obrigava a contorcer-me.
disturbing was the crying.
era o choro.
like a neural misfire,
and she called the prescribing doctor
e ligou para o médico responsável
lots of fluids for the nausea.
muitos fluidos para as náuseas.
"You know, he's really quite badly off,"
"Sabe, ele está mesmo muito mal",
"Bom, se é assim tão mau,
"Well, if it's that bad,
previous dose for a little while."
durante algum tempo".
respondeu.
to go back on my previous dose
de eu voltar à dosagem anterior
it through the withdrawal next time.
para melhorar a abstinência seguinte.
and dropped another dose.
that would keep me writhing all night.
que me fazia contorcer toda a noite.
like a misfire before
corriam de vez em quando,
I would get that welling in my chest
aquele aperto no peito
desperation and hopelessness.
e o desânimo.
that I would never recover
or from the withdrawal.
with the prescriber
that we contact our pain management team
que contactássemos
da última hospitalização.
when nobody would speak with us.
ninguém nos atendeu.
the phone advised us
o telefone, informou-nos
provides an inpatient service;
proporciona um serviço hospitalar.
to get pain under control,
para manter a dor controlada,
tapering and withdrawal.
and begged him for anything --
e implorámos qualquer coisa
foi nitidamente mau,
is that Travis go back on the medication
é que o Travis volte à medicação
para acompanhar o desmame".
more competent to wean him off."
to go back on the medication.
myself from the withdrawal with the drugs
o desmame e voltasse às drogas,
without prescription opioids
funcionou sem prescrição de opioides,
didn't kill me outright,
não me matassem,
standing up here years later,
estar aqui anos depois,
com todo o meu ser,
with virtually no sleep,
on the floor of our basement bathroom.
da casa de banho.
my feverish head
despite not having eaten anything in days.
de não ter comido nada há dias.
at the end of the night
no final da noite, ficou horrorizada
and general practitioners --
médicos da dor e médicos generalistas,
would help me.
speak with on the phone
conseguimos falar ao telefone
said that they prescribe opioids
disse que receitavam opioides
tapering or withdrawal.
o desmame e a abstinência.
was clearly coming through my voice,
se notava claramente na minha voz
took a deep breath and said,
precisa de uma clínica de reabilitação
what you need is a rehab facility
so I took her advice.
portanto segui o conselho dela.
calling those places,
a ligar para esses sítios
que muitas dessas clínicas
o uso prolongado dessas substâncias.
long-term substance use disorder.
weaning the patient off the medication,
não privar o doente da medicação
onto the safer, longer-acting opioids:
mais seguros, de ação prolongada:
for maintenance treatment.
had an extensive waiting list.
tinham uma enorme lista de espera.
they were designed to see.
que eles habitualmente recebiam.
from a rehab facility,
por uma clínica de reabilitação,
going back on the medication.
voltar para a medicação.
the lowest dose possible,
mais pequena possível
as I absolutely needed
absolutamente necessário
effects of the withdrawal.
da abstinência.
a subir as escadas
I actually went to bed.
fui para a cama,
prescription bottle,
da medicação,
had abated dramatically.
tinham diminuído drasticamente.
that was my response, too.
just a little bit.
precisely because I'm not special;
precisamente porque não sou especial,
to me was all that unique.
comigo foi inédito.
was entirely predictable
era totalmente previsível
for which I was prescribed it.
response to an opioid-rich environment
a resposta natural do cérebro
to think that from the beginning,
para pensar, desde o início,
well-formed tapering plan,
supervisionado e bem desenhado
seemingly hasn't decided
segundo parece, ainda não determinou
as a complex patient
consideraram-me um doente complexo
provavelmente da medicina da dor.
as getting pain under control
que deviam manter a dor controlada
passar sem a medicação,
get off the medication,
a especialistas em dependências.
of addiction medicine.
from long-term substance use disorder.
com o uso prolongado de substâncias.
that needed long-term management
que precisava de controlo a longo prazo
whose job such management was.
quem devia fazer esse controlo.
and worth talking about --
de desastres deste tipo
is a particular concern
de opioides é uma preocupação
from overdose in 2015.
com "overdoses" em 2015.
involved prescription opioids.
envolveram opioides receitados.
started to react to this crisis,
a reagir a esta crise
trying to prescribe fewer pills --
a tentar receitar menos comprimidos.
that's going to be important.
we're now gaining evidence
cada vez mais indícios
often prescribe medication
prescrevem medicação, com frequência,
no caso dos opioides.
much more than is needed.
muito mais do que o necessário.
help to explain why America,
ajudam a explicar porque é que os EUA,
of the global population,
da população mundial,
of the total global opioid supply.
do total mundial de opioides.
on the rate of prescribing
no ritmo das receitas
two crucially important points.
dois pontos muito importantes.
são e vão continuar a ser
important pain therapies.
severe, real, long-lasting pain,
intensas, reais, duradouras,
can make life worth living.
pode fazer a vida valer a pena.
while judiciously prescribing opioids
se receitarmos opioides criteriosamente
manage the pills that they do prescribe.
adequadamente as quantidades que receitam.
that I was given.
que me deram
knows that that is too aggressive?
saiba que é demasiado agressivo?
in an academic journal,
numa revista académica,
their pocket guide for tapering opioids.
um guia para o desmame de opioides.
how to taper opioids in the easier cases,
os opioides, nos casos mais fáceis
than a 10 percent dose reduction per week.
superior a 10%, por semana.
me tivesse dado esse plano,
instead of a few weeks.
vários meses, em vez de umas semanas.
pretty uncomfortable,
bastante desconfortável
the kind of information
deveria ter.
this medication ought to have.
prescribed opioids
adequadamente os opioides receitados
is far bigger than that,
é muito pior do que isso.
for tens of thousands of deaths a year,
de dezenas de milhares de mortes por ano,
of that medication is indefensible.
não tem desculpa.
to get off the medication
a parar com essa medicação
para esta epidemia
to our epidemic,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Travis Rieder - BioethicistTravis Rieder wants to help find a solution to America’s opioid crisis -- and if that sounds a bit too lofty, he’d settle for making clear, incremental progress in a responsible, evidence-based way.
Why you should listen
A philosopher by training, bioethicist by profession and communicator by passion, Travis Rieder writes and speaks on a variety of ethical and policy issues raised by both prescription and illicit opioid use.
This wasn't always his beat, though. Both in his doctoral training at Georgetown University, and as faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s Berman Institute of Bioethics, Rieder published widely on a variety of topics in philosophy and ethics. His interest in opioids came about suddenly, after a motorcycle accident, when he took too many pills for too long and suddenly found himself with a profound dependency. In the wake of that experience, he became driven to discover why medicine is so bad at dealing with prescription opioids, and how that problem is related to the broader drug overdose epidemic.
Rieder's first article on the topic, in the journal Health Affairs, was one of the most-read essays in 2017 and was excerpted by the Washington Post. Since then, Rieder has co-authored a Special Publication of the National Academy of Medicine on physician responsibility for the opioid epidemic, written several essays for the popular media and spoken widely on the topic to physicians, medical students and the general public. He expands on all of this work in a new book project forthcoming with HarperCollins, tentatively titled In Pain In America.
Travis Rieder | Speaker | TED.com