COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sally Royster cried when her orthopedic surgeon said he would no longer prescribe OxyContin for the chronic back pain that leaves her unable to walk. She was told prescriptions for the drug were under too much scrutiny.
Sheila Lambert sent the medical history of her degenerative spinal disease to 25 doctors and phoned 100 others, but all said they weren't taking new patients or didn't take pain patients.
"If they hear you have been on OxyContin they treat you like an addict," said Lambert of Jonesville, Va.
Across the country, chronic pain sufferers like Royster, 50, and Lambert, 41, are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the powerful prescription painkiller, dubbed "Hillbilly Heroin" because of its burgeoning abuse as a narcotic in Appalachia.
They say that abuse--and the response to it by lawmakers and law enforcers--has made doctors increasingly unwilling to provide the drug, even to the cancer patients and chronic pain sufferers who need it.
Royster searched seven months before she found a specialist in late September near her Cincinnati-area home that would prescribe OxyContin. Until then, her primary care physician agreed to prescribe the drug, but only on an interim basis, she said.
While most strong pain medicines last only about four hours, OxyContin gives a steady 12-hour release and has fewer side effects. But to addicts who chew the pill or crush it and snort or inject the powder, OxyContin produces a quick, heroin-like high that can kill.
Since 1998, OxyContin and oxycodone, the narcotic's active ingredient, have been linked to more than 100 deaths nationwide.
The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma, pulled its strongest dosage off the market in May and issued tamper-proof prescription pads. But pharmacies are still being robbed for OxyContin and the drug is still being abused. One pharmacy in St. Albans, Vt., stopped stocking the painkiller after thieves broke in four times this summer.
"The problem is not with the drug . . . it is with our society," said Dr. Gladstone McDowell, director of the Grant Pain Management Center in Columbus.
He agrees that there are people who try to con OxyContin, but he said doctors who properly document their work shouldn't have to worry. Still, he sees fewer doctors willing to prescribe OxyContin and says those who do often have waiting lists.
Several states have tightened control over OxyContin. At least nine have limited Medicaid patients' access to the drug.
