The Right to Pain Relief and other deep roots of the opioid epidemic
We now understand pain as a medical problem with impersonal and mechanical origins in our body. This has separated pain from the rest of human suffering and laid the basis for a right to pain relief. We have sought to provide that relief through opioid prescriptions. This is based on the mistaken belief that these are targeted “painkillers” that reduce pain but leave the person alone.
The Right to Pain Relief…describes an important new take on chronic pain and the role of prescribed opioids—one that can help troubled patients and their distressed doctors alike. Their argument: a change in our cultural concepts and values about pain and opioids created the opioid epidemic. They support this idea with a riveting historical and philosophical review.”
ROBERT SMITH MD, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY BLOGPOST
This is a tour deforce. Gary Taubes (good calories, bad calories fame) has suggested that medical logic alone rarely helps us understand the logic of a particular entrenched clinical practice. We must understand the history of how that practice evolved. You guys provide such a historical perspective of how pain and opioid practice evolved over past centuries and elaborate the scientific and philosophical underpinning of the evolution of pain practice. I cannot thank you enough for this.
Ajay Manhapra MD, Yale School of Medicine
You clarified the struggle with the most common uncertainty in pain practice- Is chronic pain and symptom or a disease?! I loved the way how you stated it could be both and neither. We all must learn to move ahead in patient care while holding on to these opposing conceptual anchors. In my case, I have decided for the time being that pain is not a marker of injury or threat but a part of the complex response of the body to mitigate the effects of threat and help people survive.
I hope a lot of people read this book.”