Susan Stephens has two broken disks in her back. The only drug that helps relieve her back pain is hydrocodone.
“I’ve been to the doctor over and over again. I’ve tried so many different drugs, therapies, things like that," Stephens, 50, said. "All of these things worked for a little, but hydrocodone was the only one that really killed my pain.”
Stephens' first broken disk is a result of years of “hard living,” she said. She suffered her second broken disk in a car accident last year.
She said hydrocodone especially helps during “bad episodes,” when physical activity such as walking or gardening cause the pain to become so extreme that she can’t function normally for a couple of days.
Starting Oct. 6, the Drug Enforcement Agency tightened restrictions on hydrocodone, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the country. The DEA's restrictions make the drug more difficult to obtain for patients with prescriptions.
Now hydrocodone, and drugs like Vicodin and Lortab that contain it, will be classified with schedule II prescription drugs, rather than its previous schedule III category.
This will make it be more difficult to obtain hydrocodone, according to the Controlled Substances Act. The change places the painkiller in the same category as OxyContin, and one tier below heroin and ecstasy, according to the DEA.
Lindsay Rowell, a practicing pharmacist in Gainesville, said a patient must now get a new hydrocodone prescription from a doctor each time they need a refill. Hydrocodone prescriptions can no longer be called or faxed in directly to pharmacies.
Patients with month-to-month prescriptions of the painkiller are usually those with chronic pain, or certain cancer patients who do not require an opiate.
Rowell also said only the pharmacist will be allowed to fill these prescriptions, unlike a schedule III drug, in which a technician is allowed to count and bottle the drug.
The reason for the change is to deter doctors from writing an excess of hydrocodone prescriptions, and to avoid prescription painkiller abuse.
However, Florida has already seen decreases in prescription painkiller abuse. From 2010 to 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported deaths from drug overdose fell about 18 percent, from 17 to 14 deaths per 100,000. The decline of deaths from hydrocodone fell about 23 percent in the same period.
Larry Wise, of Wise’s Pharmacy at 8 SW Fourth Ave. in Gainesville, said the new policy is less convenient for some patients. He received a few calls from doctors last week on how to handle the situation because they had not heard about the changes.
“(Doctors) could fax or phone it in, and it used to be up to five refills over a six month period, and now you need a new prescription each time,” he said.
People have also asked questions about current prescriptions that did have refills. Now they can’t get those refills without a new prescription either, Wise said.
“It makes it a lot harder for the honest people who have real medical conditions and who are trying to get their medicine," Wise said. "It makes it a lot more difficult, but it should cut down on the prescribing."
Stephens, who is currently unemployed and did not have health insurance at the time of her accident, said she can’t always afford a doctor visit for the severe pain in her back.
“It’s hard because you can’t really ask for (hydrocodone). I mean you can ask, but your doctor has to trust you to know what your body needs and that you aren’t an addict,” Stephens said. “And with everything else that I’ve tried, I don’t know why they have to make (hydrocodone) so addictive.”