This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Steven R. Brenner, MD
Cochran Veterans Affairs Hospital St Louis, Mo

JAMA. 1996;275(17):1310.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Regarding the recent Editorial by Dr Hill about adequate treatment of pain,¹ in my experience physicians are not unwilling to prescribe opioids for pain relief. Rather, in treating patients with back pain, headaches, and other pain syndromes, I have often found that patients have received large doses of narcotics on a chronic basis, while nonnarcotic means of pain relief have not been fully used, in spite of the poor response patients with many of these conditions have to narcotics.

On the other hand, physicians may be hesitant to prescribe narcotics for chronic pain syndromes since physicians have lost their licenses because they were "easy marks."² Drugseeking patients feign illnesses and may become quite angry if denied medication.² Diversion of prescription drugs into the illegal drug market is a major problem in the United States and Canada, with about 15% of all prescription drugs dispensed . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?