Another writer sent me this story, saying that chronic pain killed Prince, not an overdose.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/prince-did-not-die-from-pain-pills-he-died-from-chronic-pain/
My response is complex.
1. Is chronic pain an "illness" in its own right?
My answer is yes and no. It's complicated and our understanding is evolving. Right now I think of chronic pain as a switch in the brain that gets thrown. It can be thrown by adverse childhood experiences, by infection, by trauma or war or abuse, by too much stress... or a combination of any of these.
2. Why a switch in the brain?
In fibromyalgia patients we can't find much on physical exam, except that the pain seems out of proportion to the exam. Ditto with chronic fatigue, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, TMJ, etc. However, now we can image the brain with a functional MRI and watch which parts are lighting up and how much. A study of "normal" and fibromyalgia patients involved a standardized pain stimulus: a thumbscrew. (Kinky, right?) The normal patients said the pain stimulus was 3-4 out of 10 and their brains lit up a certain amount. The fibromyalgia patients said the same pain stimulus was 7-8 out of 10 and the pain parts of the brain lit up MORE corresponding to their pain level. So they are not lying... and it IS in their heads. Sort of. We aren't sure whether the muscle is yelling more than normal or whether the brain is hypersensitive or both. My guess would be both.
And I think this is an adaptation. It is to get us to rest, heal, calm down, introspect, stop being type A, etc. Boy, do we suck at it. Though recently I had a person in clinic who said what their body wanted to do was nothing. They just wanted to lie around. I said, well, ok, so when can you do that? They did, for two weeks, at the holidays. And my patient said, "One day I had a cup of tea and a book and the cat on my lap and the dog at my feet. I realized that my adrenaline system was turning off and I felt calm and relaxed. Healed." Back at work the person cannot always maintain it but is getting better at it.
3. What does this have to do with Prince?
The problem is that for 20 years we treated chronic pain with opiates. Unfortunately on continuous opiates, the brain cells change in many people and "down-regulate" the opiate receptors. Less receptors, the pain rises. The person needs more opiate. The brain removes more receptors. So two myths: one that if you have chronic pain and take medicine as directed, you can't get addicted. Only dependent. Since that is a myth, the DSM-V has combined addiction and dependence into one diagnosis: opioid overuse syndrome. It is a spectrum, not two separate responses.
The second myth is that if you give enough opioid, it will help the pain. Well, no. UW Pain and Addiction Clinic says that on average pain is reduced about 30% by opiods, whatever the dose. And high doses start causing some weird hyperalgesias. I've weaned two people from over 100mg methadone daily down to 20-30mg. It took two years. They felt better on the lower dose after they got through withdrawal symptoms and a short term increase in the pain receptors complaining at them. And they are much less likely to overdose and die.
Page two here http://www.supportprop.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PROP_OpioidPrescribing.pdf discusses current knowledge about opioids.
4. So like, Prince?
He may have died from a combination of fatigue and sedating drugs. If you get enough sedating drugs, then you stop breathing. Opiods are the biggest offenders combined with alcohol or sleep medicine like ambien or benzodiazepines like valium or ativan or alprazolam or muscle relaxants like methacarbomal or a combination of all of the above. I am a strict physician about urine drugs screens and I do the dip in clinic in front of the person. Way too often, the person does not tell me about the alprazolam or whatever until I am holding the dip over the cup.... and that's when they tell me. They got it from the ER or a friend or two years ago or ... took their dog's. Really.
Prince may have died from influenza, if he had it, with sedating drugs. Bad influenza causes lung tissue swelling and can mess up your oxygenation. Your heart has to take up the slack and go faster. If you are trying to work and your heart rate is well above normal, it's exhausting. It can kill you.
He may have died from overwork, another infection, sedating medicines.... but not directing from chronic pain. Chronic pain slows us but I do not think it kills us. What kills us is trying to treat it with a pill instead of resting and doing gentle exercise and saying: What does my body want?
5. Overdose?
Also, are we talking about an accidental overdose? Are we talking about drug abuse? Are we talking about accidental death or suicide or do we as a society think that addiction deserves overdose death but a person taking medicine for chronic pain is a tragedy? Aren't we a bit judgemental?
Prince may have taken a pain pill as directed but taken it with too many other controlled substances or with alcohol or while sick and exhausted. Overdose is defined as too high a dose. If it was two percocets, alcohol, flu and xanax.... it could be an accidental overdose aka poisoning.
6. Are you sure?
No. Medicine changes. Our understanding of the brain changes. Science is about change and deepening understanding. We are barely getting started on the brain and I would say that we are in preschool there.
http://www.doh.wa.gov/LicensesPermitsandCertificates/MedicalCommission/MedicalResources/PainManagement
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ForPublicHealthandHealthcareProviders/HealthcareProfessionsandFacilities/PainManagement/FrequentlyAskedQuestionsforPatients
DSM-V-TR criteria for Diagnosis of Opioid Use Disorders
And on the other hand: http://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/sudden-unexpected-death-chronic-pain-patients
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/stress-cardiomyopathy-a-different-kind-of-heart-attack-201509038239