Based on everyones experiences with doctors who would you say is more liberal as far as prescribing goes the older docs or the young ones?

In my exerience, it has to be the older docs.

Older dr's. This is my experience in being their patients and working with them.

definately older. they don't seem to be as quick to try "new" methods/treatments/medications. they seem to want to stick with what's worked in the past, for me anyway, which is a good thing.

Older. I've NEVER liked the younger ones, they always want to use the "newer" more "in style" medications and I personally hate that. It's better to get one that's been around for a while because there's a higher chance of getting stronger stuff.

I have a female MD in her forties, she prescribes what is needed, though I would not refer others to her for being liberal with script writing - though I think she is a Democrat.

IMO younger MDs often haven't seen or felt enough pain to even begin to assess and treat CPers. Book smarts... cringe.

How the [censored] do you know? That is laughable. This board has become so damm boring and sheeplike.

c'mon, that was a bit funny (i would say -- from out in LEFT field somewhere.

soooooooo, can we expect your retreat from the boring and sheeplike? wouldn't want to keep you from anything important -- like getting bold and horny -- i mean corny!

you should see some cartoons or something -- try anything as it can't make you more than the geezer you come off as. or geezerettte.......

Yea, but this conformity, just for people's approval, is funny but child like..

My pain management doctor is 72! He is awesome. He is my buddy, plus his liberal prescribing allows me to live a semi-normal life.

Along with that liberal prescribing though, comes many stipulations such as urine tests measuring the AMOUNT of the medications he prescribes being present in the sample, random pill counts, mandatory medication trials every now and then so he is not prescibing OC to every patient...ect.

Just dont get him talking about his damn horses, or you're screwed for the next hour...

Definately for me "older doctors". I had one doctor that I had seen since I was little and after my accident I would just have to call his office and he would call it over the phone. The doctor I have now is good and in his mid 40's will prescribe, but 20 at the most. He is more keen to anti-inflamatories. Older docs definately. They feel that they have been around forever and they do not take direction from up above well. They truly care about giving medications that they and the patient know that helps. No beating around bushed trying this and that.

Hiya MoodyBlue, been along time!

Yes I confess to trying to be funny. I try... oh well atleast a few guessed correctly.

This board is just as rude and sweet as I remember it to be.

Take care

My Mistake. Need to recalibrate my meds..

I think the young doctors are afraid of getting into trouble but the older ones don't seem to care. It may also depend on where they're from. I used to have a 65 year old Dr. from India who would barely prescribe an aspirin. He and other Indians I know seem like they are afraid of any kind of controversy, as if they will get in trouble and be deported or something.

Older Docs, NO DOUBT about it in my mind.

They are old school, and seem to be more happy to prescribe what works. Rather than saving their own [censored] and making sure not to prescribe a potentially mildly addictive drug. Younger docs have their whole career ahead of them, Im sure older docs dont wanna lose their jobs but they're trained that way valium was what you gave a stressed out person, d.h.codine isn't going to turn you into a junkie but new docs seem so scared of risking their own [censored], and also I think because they are newly trained and are learning the protocols of how things are done, they are more likely to stick rigidly to it.

Young docs are just pain in the [censored] when it comes to liberal thinking and risk taking. I have ADHD and as with many ADHD sufferers I have a drug problem, so my doc refuses to give me ritalin, because it can be habit forming.

Well if I have diabetes, and have to take an addictive drug for the rest of my life, to save my life and make me fuction normally. What ya gonna do ???

Why these f@&^*^& idiots sometimes.

I am for older docs too. Not because I am a Democrat (liberal med user) which I am Not. A conservative med user I am. Or an old corny horny geezer which I am NOT. I like older docs just because they seem to get it when I talk about chronic pain.

I think older doctors have seen it all, have older patients in a lot of pain, have pain themselves and know what we are going through.

My PCP seemed to be more liberal with pain medicines than the pain specialist. Plus my PCP didn't make me give back medicine that wasn't working at that time, never drug screened me or counted my pills. I'm sick to death of drug screens that aren't always accurate, of foreign doctors in the PM offices giving you enough to just barely take the edge off the pain but will not prescribe any type of benzo for spasms. Flexeril is it. I hate that stuff. Plus you get 30 days of medicine and are seen every 29 days, so if you have a bad day forget it!

So yeah, give me my PCP who has known me for more years than some of my children have been on this earth any day. We even joke about some of the pain medicines and sleeping medicines and how much they s*ck.

I agree...I have seen 2 "younger" doctors recently, a GP and a rheumatologist, and neither would prescribe anything for chronic pain other than flexeril or skelaxin...
I am considering going to a pain managment doctor, but if they are anything like these doctors in my area, I will only be wasting my time...I wish I could find a good one on the recommendation of someone..I live in NE Pa, and not far from Phila, & parts of NY & NJ as well..

Older docs for sure. If I walk into a new drs and they are young,I don't even feel like continuing with the consult.I can predict what they will say.Even with a long history,they seem to ignore that and think their NEW approach is best.
Often their NEW approach is prescribing something that I have already tried and had an allergic reation to.And by allergic,I don't just mean a headache or something.I mean a full body rash and or hives etc.

Give me an older dr anyday.
And to all the young drs reading this,you may think you are a dr,but wait for another 20 years of practice and then tell me you know everything.

There's good reason for this. Most new doctors are trained with the DEA breathing down their necks and often times become quite paranoid about losing their license. 8+ years of training and $150,000 in loans is a lot to put at stake.

I totally agree with you.
Thats why they should stop calling them drs,and start calling them DEA-Agents/Accountants.

older docs, as a rule. some of the younger ones get it; some of the older ones don't.

i've noticed in my line of work, though (medical field), the younger docs and PAs think nothing of sending someone off with the recommentation for OTC tylenol or NSAIDs who has a fresh fracture or new-onset acute back/neck ruptured disks.

yes, OTC meds have their place, but PLEASE..! if i had a bad fracture (as in needing surgery) or a fresh HNP and i was given an RX for tylenol or aleve, i'd throw it in the prescriber's face.

older docs.... not "croakers" who'll write ANYTHING but experienced enough to see REAL pain (or other) patients and write reasonable scripts as needed... instead of the "we don't write any schedule prescriptions at this clinic"

OLDER, the younger ones don't get it or are scared to prescribe..

You gotta be dying to get decent pain relief!!!

Another vote for Older Dr's, as a general rule.

I never try to tell an MD. what to do. Just give them my history and tell them what has worked in the past.
I've noticed that Dr's are like cats and will do the opposite of anything I try to tell them.
Can you say "God Complex" ?

On a funny note, I always carry along my old records, in a folder, to prove I'm telling the truth.
Not one Dr. has ever opened the folder to look at the old records.

Just a theory here; The "Latest-Greatest" drugs tend to be patented and are pushed by sales reps.
The more scripts Dr's write for newer drugs, the more free lunches and all expense paid trips to "siminars" in exotic locals the Dr's get. (at least in the US)

The benzos and opiate type drugs tend to be long out of patent. No incentive there?

I'm in full agreement with the majority here. Older docs are much more relaxed about prescribing the stuff that works. And I have a little something to add to the mix: I recently saw an older P.A. - he seemed to be even more liberal than most M.D.'s in his age range. Nice guy!

Most young ones in my state are very against narcotics, of course that could be because the official line of the state medical school is that narcotic dependance is only acceptable if you have less than 6 months to live.

I agree Bluefairy, it is that way here too! The younger, the more conservative they are. Some of you know my Jack of All Trades background, which includes growing up in my dad's pharmacy and working there every day for many years. Well, in the 60's and 70's they prescribed very liberally and I don't know how many here would remember, but the big thing back then was adding a touch of amphetamine to EVERYTHING. I had pain pills for my period with Dexederine in them. There were COLD pills with DEXEDRINE in them. It was pretty much a candy store atmosphere. Doctors prescribed Valium, Librium, etc. etc. by the boatloads.
The drug of abuse then was the Amphetamine as well as tranquilizers and sleeping pills. It was very liberal. In the 80's things were pretty liberal still, and I think it was Reagan that started to turn the tide into a more conservative anti-drug culture. I find that now, many doctors coming out of medical school have been taught that the alternatives to narcotics are just as effective, and that narcotics are too addictive. I also have heard the six month rule. If an illness is terminal, then docs are much more liberal in prescribing. So much for quality of life issues for others. I, for example, can't take NSAIDS, so my choices are very limited. I know that I have heard of very few docs who are comfortable of prescribing narcotics on a regular basis to a patient. Short term injuries and illnesses or terminal illnesses seem to be the exception, and then only when nothing else works. But yup, the younger are very much more against prescribing. Interesting.

BF...?

i may have missed it, but what state is that? that has the 6 month "policy" for narcotic dependence?

thats the determination of some uneducated-over confident self absorbed state appointed director of health or whatever they call the high-health office there.

it amazes me that educated people are that ignorant of suffering.