Pain


Why doctors are afraid to treat pain
The AARP Magazine has a great piece on why Americans are denied drug medication.

Much of this suffering is preventable.  Experts do know how to reduce pain safely.  In particular, physicians now know that opioid analgesics, medicines such as morphine and oxycodone, provide relief for a wide spectrum of pain problems, with relatively few side effects when taken as prescribed.  "We can't cure everybody who is in pain, but we can make almost everyone feel better," says Scott Fishman, chief of the division of pain medicine at the University of California, Davis, and president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.  "Becoming a prisoner of pain is not an inevitability."

The problem is that the most effective medications cause skittishness among many physicians.  Poor medical-school training has left them unaware of the tools at their disposal and even the importance of treating pain.  Many harbor the false impression that opioids frequently lead to addiction or unmanageable side effects, even when used correctly for a legitimate medical need.  'Becoming a prisoner of pain is not an inevitability.'

<snip>

Worse, some physicians fear that if they deliver humane pain care, they'll face prosecution by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) or state medical boards.  In recent years, a number of respected doctors have been investigated and even prosecuted after prescribing large amounts of opioids.  The result, according to experts, is an environment that scares doctors away from practicing good medicine. 

(emphasis added)

Repeat after me. "Government is not my friend."

You can't trust politicians or bureaucrats to make decisions for your best interests.

Only you can do that, and only if you have choices.

Hat tip to Radley Balko at The Agitator.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - August 28, 2005 at 06:35 PM  Tag


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