One of the most surprising things Human Rights Watch learned, according to researcher Laura Mills, is how little the government knows — or is willing to say — about cutbacks in opioid prescribing.

“We went into this report hoping we’d be able to find some data. And what we found is, if there is data, none of it has been published,” Mills told PNN. “We don’t know how many people committed suicide. We don’t know how many people are alive or dead within a year of tapering. We don’t know how many people are hospitalized.

“And that’s a huge risk because essentially we’re letting dramatic policy changes take effect very quickly. Many of these may be justified, but we aren’t measuring in real time what’s happening. At least none of these organizations are doing it in a way that’s public.”

‘Agonizing Pain Like Torture’

The report tells the story of Maria Higginbotham, a Seattle-area woman with an aggressive form of degenerative disc disease. Multiple surgeries not only failed to relieve her pain, they left her with adhesive arachnoiditis, a chronic inflammation of spinal nerves.

Although bedridden and in constant pain, Higginbotham’s doctor is planning to reduce her dose of opioid medication by 75 percent to comply with the CDC guideline.

“I’m 57 years old and I’m almost completely bedridden due to agonizing pain like torture,” Higginbotham said. “I cannot hold my 15-month-old grandson. I cannot hold my beloved dogs, I can’t bend over to touch them. I cry out in my sleep because I can’t find a way to get comfortable.

“I can barely get myself off of my toilet. Sometimes I have to get off the couch by getting on my hands and knees and pulling myself up because I can’t stand up it hurts so badly.”

Higginbotham’s doctor told Human Rights Watch he had no choice but to cut her opioid dose, even though he knows the medication is helping her.

“There’s a lot of talk in the pain medicine world that if you do not get people down to 90 morphine equivalents, you set yourself up for a liability, especially if something were to happen to that patient,” he said. “We still feel like we’re vulnerable to being held liable for patients if they’re over that guideline limit, even when you know they’re not addicted and they’re benefiting (from opioids).”

You can learn more about Maria Higginbotham and the Human Rights Watch report in this video: