By Victoria Reed, PNN Columnist

I belong to several online chronic pain support groups. One thing I often notice is that many people say that they’ve been forced to choose between their psychiatric meds and their pain relievers.

Depression is a serious condition that affects many people in the pain community and is often accompanied by anxiety and insomnia. Anxiety is often treated with a class of medication known as benzodiazepines. It is primarily “benzos” that patients are being told to give up in order to continue receiving opioids.

The reason for this is that opioids and benzos depress the central nervous system and raise the risk of respiratory depression – which is slow and ineffective breathing. Mild cases can result in tiredness, daytime sleepiness and shortness of breath. More serious cases can lead to seizures, headaches and even death.

In 2016, the CDC told doctors to “avoid prescribing opioid pain medication and benzodiazepines concurrently whenever possible” and the FDA updated drug labels to warn about the “serious risks” of taking the medications concurrently.

This issue hits home for me because a close relative of mine is on psychiatric medication and also suffers from chronic pain. Currently, she only uses over-the-counter meds for the pain of fibromyalgia, but there may come a time when she might need a stronger opioid pain reliever, as fibromyalgia is progressive and tends to worsen over time.

Will she be able to get a prescription pain medication without having to give up her psychiatric meds? Doctors are already reluctant to prescribe opioids, especially if a patient is being treated with a benzodiazepine or another psychiatric drug, such as those used to treat ADHD.

As mental health conditions worsen due to the stress of the pandemic, many are going to need to stay on their medications. Doctors forcing people to choose between their pain meds and psychiatric meds is only going to worsen the problem of illicit drug use. Sadly, the number of suicides will increase as well.

Being in a situation of having to choose one med over another when you need both, is obviously never good. I hope that my relative never finds herself in this situation.

Many pain sufferers have taken opioids and benzos safely and responsibly for years. They should not be forced to choose between the two drugs, as long they are medically necessary and appropriate.

Victoria Reed lives in Cleveland, Ohio. She suffers from endometriosis, fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease and rheumatoid arthritis.