Thread by @nofish_nonuts

@BCBSM @BCBSM, here are 3 reasons you've misrepresented the correlative, NOT causal, relationship b/t opiates & suicide:

1) You combine "suicide" with "OD" without acknowledging the role of illicit fentanyl in the non-suicidal, unintentional fatal ingestion of drugs for either ...

@BCBSM ... recreational or un/under treated pain, when the etiology of both cannot be generalized under these disparate circumstances;

2) Any #chronicpain or #cancwr pain patient who has been on ">wkly" opiates over at least the last year, & who committed suicide (did not OD) had ...

@BCBSM ... likely chosen suicide b/c their pain could not be managed after a forced taper, and their physician could no longer be trusted to look out for the patients' best interest rather than reacting to coercion from insurers like BCBS of Michigan; and, finally,

3) Overdose is ...

@BCBSM ... primarily due to *either* use of street or illicit counterfeit drugs tainted w/illicit fentanyl, or polysubstance use including alcohol or other drugs, NOT patient exposure through legitimate treatment of insoluble pain.

Stop looting your patients' policy coverage by ...

@BCBSM ... prohibiting opiate therapy as "dangerous" - you know it's a lie, & that opiates have far less risk of adverse medical events in long-term therapy (<2%) than even blood thinners do.

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