11/20/2021
During my advocacy for multimodal pain control with opioid minimization, I’ve had the honor of engaging in some very enlightening conversations with experts in pain management and palliative care. The stigmatization of opioids creates real challenges in caring for their patients, many of whom are left suffering. Out of respect for the work they do and the patients they care for, I want to express my stance on opioids so there is no confusion.
Opioids are a valuable tool in our battle to provide compassionate pain control. They are necessary and indicated for many of our fellow Americans that would otherwise be left suffering. Providing compassionate pain control in the safest manner possible has always, and will always be, my number one priority. It’s the number one reason why I was drawn to multimodal pain control in the first place.
“Opioid-free” pain regimens are obviously a goal, but if it comes at the expense of compassionate pain control in our patients, it is wrong. My position is that the breadth of patients we have historically treated exclusively with opioids for pain control has the opportunity to be reduced if we utilize multimodal non-opioid medications to their full capacity with opioids as needed when non-opioid methods are not adequate. This does not mean every patient and every situation can be treated with non-opioid medications alone. But, in situations where we can minimize our opioid use and still achieve good pain control, we can reduce certain risks for many patients and still provide the compassionate pain control necessary. We must keep our goal of compassionate care of our patients at the center of our focus and alleviating the suffering of pain is very important. Our pursuit of that goal should absolutely include using medically indicated prescription opioids when necessary.
