DRUG ABUSE PROBLEM HURTS THOSE WITH CHRONIC PAIN

Thank you for your informative series on prescription drug abuse,
which is undeniably a
serious problem.

I would like to see you do an equally informative series on the flip
side of the problem: people with a legitimate need for prescription
medications for pain who are unable to obtain them because physicians
are (understandably) reluctant to prescribe them.

The medical journals are full of articles about the mistreatment and
undertreatment of chronic pain, but I'll bet you could easily find
dozens of people to give you first-person stories. Even those who,
like myself, have no interest whatsoever in using narcotics for
chronic pain have difficulty finding a health care provider who will
have a serious conversation about managing pain while juggling
full-time work, home, care of elders, and all the other exigencies of
daily life in the 21st century.

I don't want Percocet, I just want my knees and back and neck and feet
to stop hurting long enough to get a good night's sleep! But my last
several conversations with health care providers (aside from my
osteopath, whose ministrations keep me able to work) have been so
frustrating that I don't even bother bringing the topic up any more.

Rebecca Scott

Sandwich