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medpundit |
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Wednesday, October 09, 2002I lecture on pain and the issue of the use of opiates is quite contentious. If you organize a conference and have someone lecture on why writing opiates may not always be appropriate you are deluged with drug companies offering money. The offer is to have a lecturer sponsored by them to tell the "other" side. The money offer goes up until you can't refuse it. Even a minor conference can get 6 figure grants. If you are willing to lecture on why narcotics are good(whatever the question) you will be sponsered around the country. No one sponsors speakers who suggest that narcotics can be a problem. Pain as a specialty actually started with the realization that chronic narcotics are not appropriate for most patients with pain. Pain is a multifocal disease with a large suffering component. Narcotics have severe side effects including endocrine suppression from suppression of ACTH. The issue of narcotics is difficult to disuss at the APS and AAPM due to the membership you addressed. The leadership is mostly academics who are on the narcotic speaking circuit and academic nurses. There is little practicing pain physician input. I’ve heard this sort of thing before from physicians who lecture, and it isn’t just limited to opiates and pain. It happens with drugs used to treat incontinence, cholesterol, diabetes and dementia, too. (The list could go on and on.) The dissenting voices are increasingly being silenced by financial pressures from drug companies - they can't get their results published and they can’t speak at conferences. posted by Sydney on 10/09/2002 08:27:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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