Originally Posted by Dr. Smith

Ok. That topic has come up here before, particularly with Lyrica & gabapentin.

As I said, medicine is a precise language, yet some doctors can still be very poor communicators. We also get the (justified) complaint a lot here too about doctors not taking enough time to explain/answer questions. Things are/may not always be as they seem...

Example: A patient goes to their doctor and says, "Doctor, I'm experiencing these horrible withdrawal symptoms; does this mean I'm addicted?" The doctor replies, "No, you cannot be addicted; Progenitorivox is not addicting," but doesn't elucidate further. Many doctors just try to keep answers short—so as not to confuse or overwhelm patients with lengthy detailed answers—or for other reasons known only to them.

To the patient, the above sounds like the doctor is being dismissive, and/or doesn't believe him/her, or is refusing to acknowledge their very real suffering.

To the doctor, s/he's just keeping the answer short. Maybe s/he's pressed for time, maybe s/he's got a lot on his/her mind and didn't give it a second thought, maybe s/he thinks the patient isn't much interested in the distinction... who knows?

However, to chronic pain patients especially, the distinction is very important, because addiction—unlike dependence—attaches a huge stigma, perpetuated in large part due to the confusion caused by not undestanding the difference, and using the terms interchangably.

From a previous thread on a similar topic:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1016837-50.html

Doc