PAIN MEDICATION CAN BE TAKEN SAFELY

I commend your newspaper's attempt at balanced reporting regarding the
issue of the use of opioid analgesic medications in the treatment of
chronic pain.

The real threat to public health is a law enforcement witch hunt conducted
against doctors who effectively treat pain with these medications. Your
failure to tell this story hurts society, and everyone in it.

The followng was included on a fact sheet from a recent Massachusetts
General Hospital newsletter on pain, which debunks most of the common
mistaken beliefs that drive the current hysteria about these substances: *
Opioids are very safe and effective when used appropriately.

* People who take opioids as medication to relieve pain do not become addicted.

* Addiction is a psychological condition that, like an eating disorder, has
a physical component. Addiction to opioids in the general population is
very low, approximately 1 percent of all Americans over the age of 12.
Studies of people who have been prescribed opioids for pain show that
considerably less than 1 percent become addicted.

A far more likely problem is that in the health care setting a patient's
pain will be under-treated because of the withholding of or inappropriate
prescribing of opioids. Ironically, this can lead to "drug-seeking
behavior," more likely a sign of inadequate analgesia than of addiction.

Frank B. Fisher, MD, El Cerrito, Calif.