WRITER IGNORANT OF DRUGS' WIDESPREAD EFFECTS

The column by Lenore Skenazy, "Prescriptions safely ease needless pain,"
[The Sun News, Feb. 2] is a superficial approach to the understanding and
treatment of chronic pain and is misleading to the public. The writer is
misinformed about the place of narcotics [opioids] for chronic pain and
ignores their dangers. Although beneficial for many acute and chronic pain
patients, particularly in cancer, these drugs are not indicated for many
others.

Proper patient selection is mandatory in order to avoid their use in
high-risk conditions, especially in those with musculoskeletal pain related
to chronic stress and associated with a large spectrum of anxiety and
depressive disorders, or in those seeking drugs for nonmedical reasons.

Apparently, the widely publicized local and national problems with the
long-acting opioid, OxyContin, which closed a Myrtle Beach pain clinic,
resulted in numerous instances of illicit abuse and addiction, and
contributed to nearly 300 overdose deaths nationally since January 2000
[per U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports], have no relevance to
this columnist. She also chose to discount the stories of a number of
famous people who became addicted to other prescription opioids, including
that of Cindy McCain [wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.], who courageously
described her former drug problem in the April 9 edition of Newsweek.

I hope that future articles concerning important subjects in the medical
field will present a more informed point of view, with a greater degree of
responsibility to the public.

Dr Stephen G Gelfand, Myrtle Beach.