Reno, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — There's a shortage of opioid drugs and it's leaving Nevada patients in pain, wondering when they might get some relief.
Erica Johnson takes daily pain medications that include hydrocodone.
"I'm on it because I have chronic pain. I was a gymnast for about 16 years. I blew out my shoulders, my knee, my hip," she said.
Johnson is under strict guidance from a pain management doctor and has to follow state law for filling her prescription. One requirement is that she can't fill her opioid until it's days away from running out.
"So Sunday I ran out of pain medication, I call the pharmacy to get my refill and they tell me they don't have any," Johnson said. "I tried multiple, multiple big pharmacies in the area... CVS, Walgreens, Costco, Raley's."
Doctors say it's a national opioid shortage, mostly hydrocodone and oxycodone.
"The shortage has happened over the last three to six months and it's become more and more prevalent," said Dr. Denis Patterson at Nevada Advanced Pain Specialists.
Patterson said a lot of people are on pain medications and truly need them to be active and maintain a normal lifestyle.
He said the shortage is due to supply chain issues, also that manufacturers prices to make the prescription versus the profits aren't always beneficial, and that there's been a national push to crackdown on opioid use.
"Telling manufacturers that they can only make so many of these pills that they're trying to limit how many are made in hopes to get people off of them," Patterson.
The American Medical Association said "drug shortages are happening right now across several classes of drugs for a myriad of reasons." The Food and Drug Administration reports that "occasionally, hospitals or pharmacies report local supply issues, however these are usually temporary and may involve distribution issues."
Doctors worry about dangerous withdrawal symptoms if patients can't get their meds. Stopping opioids abruptly can be life-threatening.
Johnson was able to get a partial refill of her opioid prescription. But she's about to have a hip replacement and is worried about relying on the drug she might not be able to find. She plans to talk with her doctor about safely tapering off the drug.