“Doctor, make my pain go away.” I hear this plea, in one form or another, from patients on a daily basis. Yet it presents physicians like me with a troubling conundrum.
Our nation, embroiled in an ever-deepening opioid addiction crisis, needs more options for patients with pain. We need more innovation, more safe and effective non-opioid alternatives, and more research focused on finding these solutions.
In the meantime, we need policies that encourage awareness, education, insurance coverage and access to the broad range of balanced pain management options. Many of these alternatives are grossly underutilized due to barriers in medicine that are only increasing.
Read More at Alliance for Patient Access.
