Health News and Scoops

Medication mistakes at home have created a dangerous situation in America according to a recent national study, and the need for a new approach to medication management is critical, according to Shane Reeves, D. Pharm and co-owner of Reeves-Sain.

Reeves said we need to move away from the traditional system of bottles to a clearer, more easily managed system, and his company has developed the product to do that.

The Reeves-Sain product, called MediPACK, pre-packages a consumer’s medications in easy to manage, easy to carry plastic packs with a day’s total medication included in one package. The system eliminates error because the individual packages contain only the prescribed medications for that day. The information on the outside of the package details the medications included, when they are to be taken and what day they are scheduled for.

The information is scary, says Reeves. Speaking to the Fearless Caregiver conference in Nashville last month, he said, “The fact that deaths have risen dramatically in this relatively short period is evidence that the medication management system has changed. More dosage management of a wider range of drugs, including painkillers, is now in the hands of the patient, many of whom are older and less able to manage a large number of medications.”

The findings, based on nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates, were published earlier this year by the Archives of Internal Medicine. Deaths from medication mistakes at home increased from 1,132 deaths in 1983 to 12,426 in 2004. Adjusted for population growth, that amounts to an increase of more than 700 percent during that time. The increase in deaths was highest among baby boomers, people in their 40s and 50s.

“The amount of medical supervision is going down, and the amount of responsibility put on the patient’s shoulders is going up,” said lead author David Phillips of the University of California-San Diego.

People share prescriptions at an alarming rate, said boomer Dr. J. Lyle Bootman, the University of Arizona’s pharmacy dean, who was not involved in the research. One recent study found 23 percent of people say they have loaned their prescription medicine to someone else and 27 percent say they have borrowed someone else’s prescription drugs.

Reeves-Sain’s MediPACK system has been available in nursing homes and assisted living centers through Reeves-Sain’s extended care division, but the company saw an opportunity to extend it for general use. Because the medications are pre-packaged they can be ordered anywhere and Reeves-Sain handles delivery.

Reeves-Sain, founded in 1980 and locally owned throughout its existence, is a comprehensive medical operation, providing everything from medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, diabetes and oxygen services and a range of other programs such as an in-store soda shoppe. The company also operates a pharmacy-only service in the Murfreesboro Medical Clinic.

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We tend to avoid painful sensations. Painful stimuli, well, they hurt! The body’s response to painful stimuli is a natural and important one, which not only acts right away to prevent us from hurting ourselves but also acts in the long-term, teaching us not to put ourselves in that situation again. A study released this week by the Keele University of Psychology tested a set of undergraduates and found that swearing made pain more tolerable in a significant number of participants. Their reason for this phenomenon was that swearing might elicit aggressive or angry emotions, which in turn could start up our fight-or-flight response. The fight or flight response, due to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, leads to an adrenaline surge, increased blood flow to the muscles, etc.  It has been known to make the body forget about pain while it focuses on more important things. The study adds that the heart rate tends to be higher when people are in the act of cursing; but it is quite difficult to use that data to claim that the high heart rate is a result of the cursing activating the fight or flight response. Swearing is innate taboo, so the heart rate could even go up because the subjects have a slight rush or fear to swearing constantly and in front of people they do not know.

Now, while I believe that cursing causing the fight-or-flight response is a pretty good explanation for why swearing might make pain more tolerable, I don’t think it is the reason. When we feel a painful stimulus, we produce a myriad of responses. We yell, scream, gasp, swear, and jump (funny if you think about it). Then, afterward, we tend to rub the area, unless it is a burn or something of that type. Rubbing is what is referred to as a gating mechanism. Our body has developed its own way to deal with pain that does not necessarily have to do with fight or flight. Nerves are like roads, and there can only be so much congestion; therefore, we have a limited capacity to perceive (don’t confuse that with sense) pain. Pathways in the spinal cord are in charge of controlling traffic when faced with multiple painful stimuli, providing the brain with information about the most important sensations. For example, you stop feeling your sore quad when a knife is stuck into your arm. This is because clearly the knife if your arm poses a greater threat. Similarly, although on a smaller scale, rubbing your sore knee is a gating mechanism. It helps the pain to go away because you are providing a sense of touch to the same area that is in pain. Icing and heating work the same way.

So, what is my point? My point is, I would argue that the reason swearing makes pain more tolerable is because it is a useful gating mechanism. Swearing is not appropriate; it is not something that we can do whenever we want, wherever we want (not to say that people do not). The act of swearing has that edge to it that may be just enough of a distraction to switch on a simple gating mechanism. So the next time you stub your toe on a curb or a misplaced shoe, whip out the best curse word that you’ve got, and maybe it will give you a little bit of relief.