When a doctor’s designated method of treatment for a medical or post surgical condition involves addictive medications he has a reasonable responsibility to monitor the patient to make sure the patient does not develop an induced addiction to the medication he prescribes. The doctor should be monitoring patient use of the drugs to assure that the patient does not abuse of the substance resulting in a medically induced drug addiction. The doctor also has a reasonable responsibility to discontinue the prescription of any medication he knows may have adverse effects on a patient such as leading to an addiction and to prescribe different, similarly effective medication that will not have adverse effects, if any exist. Basically the above is the general standard of care most physicians adhere to in prescribing controlled and/or addictive medications for patient use. If a doctor has prescribed addictive medications on an on-going basis with no regard to the effects on the patient’s health and well being then that doctor’s medical care and treatment may have fallen below the acceptable standard of care employed by his peers and he may have provided negligent medical treatment causing his patient to suffer the physical and emotional injury of substance addiction.
Specific Elements are Determine Healthcare Provider Negligence
A physician can be held liable for inducing patient addiction to prescription medications if his actions were negligent based on the elements below:
- A duty of care was owed the patient by the physician
- That duty of care was breached by physician failure to conform to the relevant standard of medical care.
- The breach of the standard of care must be shown by expert testimony, or in the case of obvious errors involving res ipsa loquitur, the negligent act speaks for itself without additional testimony.
- The breach of duty caused a direct injury or was the proximate cause of an injury to the patient.
- Damages
Getting Legal Help
If you or a member of your family suffers from an induced addiction to prescription pharmaceutical which you believe began from a physician’s clinical treatment of a medical condition it is important to discuss the circumstance of the addiction with a medical malpractice attorney and to determine if the addiction is an injury arising due to actionable negligence by a healthcare provider. An attorney can help you to understand how an addiction that started due to a physician’s failure to monitor patient prescription drug use can lead to liability to the patient left with an addiction injury by his treatment.
