Preventive Medicine: A Prescription for Dealing with the Promise, Peril of Painkillers

Summary

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THERE HAS LONG BEEN recognition in the United States that clinicians tend to under-treat serious, and especially chronic pain. This problem tends to become most recognizable when the source of pain is objective, such as cancer, and when concerns about consequences of pain medication use, such as addiction, are most questionable, if not downright silly. When someone is likely to live for only months, for instance, the possibility of developing a dependence on narcotics is inconsequential, especially if it is the price to pay for a tolerable level of comfort. This concept has been fully embraced and best practiced by Hospice, where provision of comfort is the top priority.

But there are reasons for reticence about use of narcotic painkillers in general, even if those reasons unfortunately spill over into areas where they do more harm than good.

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Extract

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Preventive Medicine: A Prescription for Dealing with the Promise, Peril of Painkillers

Narcotics, like a number of other common drug classes, are "habit forming," meaning their use propagates use and potential abuse. There are several elements to true addiction, the most notable being that whatever you needed treatment for in the first place, you wind up DR...

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