Word: paines
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...government scrutiny, are avoiding the use of powerful narcotics such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and Dilaudid. "It is impossible to be sure that a patient is not diverting any of his medication," says Dr. Thomas Stinson, a Medford, Mass., anesthesiologist who is closing his 20-year practice to new pain patients. "I fear I might be targeted...
...past year, hundreds of sufferers have contacted the Baltimore-based American Pain Foundation. "They've gone to every physician within hundreds of miles and can't get someone to prescribe to them," says executive director Will Rowe. In some cases, patients with high-dosage prescriptions are turned away by drug stores, which are also subject to DEA investigations. "It's demeaning," says Mary Vargas, a Maryland attorney whose spine was injured in an auto accident. "Pharmacists tell me they don't have the medication, only to recant and dispense it when I persist with the manager...
...pain wars escalated last April when Virginia internist Dr. William Hurwitz was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after 16 former patients testified against him and a jury found that the death of another patient was caused by an overdose. Hurwitz's assets were seized, and now he is appealing his conviction with the help of the pain foundation and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Hurwitz defenders acknowledge that he may have practiced overly aggressive medicine and allowed addicts to snooker him, but insist he never profited from drug sales and was not a criminal. "Maybe...
...dates back thousands of years. They were widely available in the U.S. until the public, alarmed by the growing number of addicts, called for strict anti-narcotics laws in the early 20th century. In the public mind, opioids such as morphine and laudanum, although they remained the most effective pain relievers, became associated with their illegal cousins--heroin and opium--and doctors often shied away from prescribing them...
...opioids made a comeback in the 1980s, after patient groups and physicians focused attention on the problem of under-treated pain. Research showed that addiction did not necessarily result from aggressive, well-managed opioid therapy. In the 1990s, as the specialty of pain management grew in hospitals and universities, opioid use spread from cancer and end-of-life patients to the chronic-pain victims of industrial accidents, car crashes and conditions such as migraines, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis...