Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Ethical Perspectives on Pain


In the residents’ lounge at the University of Kentucky, there is a scrap of paper posted on the wall with a haiku scribbled on it: “Drug-seeking patients / You will get NONE of your candy / When I am on call.” It’s unknown how long the sign has been up, but concerns about pain and pain relief have a long standing in medicine. Evidence of fossilized opium has been found in the remains of our earliest hominid ancestors, and narcotics are mentioned liberally throughout the Homeric epics. In our own day and age, more than 100 million Americans experience the debilitations of chronic pain. So, when confronted with such a massive problem, why all the cynicism?

Read full article: Ethical Perspectives on Pain 


Bharat Kumar, MD PGY-2, Internal Medicine University of Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky
Virtual Mentor. May 2013, Volume 15, Number 5: 401-402.

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