CVS Nightmare- Is it a national phenomenon?

ucbalumnus
Fri, 19 Nov 2021 17:11:18 +0000

garland:

These two things lie side by side: the intractable addiction problem that has led to many thousands of deaths, and the legitimate need for pain reduction and the fact that it is much harder for people in severe pain to be treated now, despite the severe suffering they endure.

Isn’t the problem based on the fact that the physician does not really know how painful the situation is for the patient? The patient can tell the physician, but different patients may use the same descriptor like “very painful” to describe different levels of pain. Then there is the problem of how to determine whether a patient is a drug-seeking abuser versus someone with more legitimate pain medication needs. So errors in judgement by the physician seem unavoidable here.