Long-term opioid treatment of nonmalignant pain: a believer loses his faith.

摘要

AS A PATIENT-CENTERED INTERNIST, I HAVE never wanted a patient of mine to suffer needless pain. During my residency in the 1980s, I was influenced by studies showing that physicians undertreated pain, and I vowed that I would not practice in that way. Although many physicians I knew refused to enroll with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency for the right to prescribe controlled substances because they wanted an easy excuse to say they could not write prescriptions for opi-oids, I got my "triplicate pad" as soon as I finished internship and had my license.