NY Times in depth about the quandary of treating chronic pain:
McIver was a particularly aggressive pain doctor. Pain can be measured only by how patients say they feel: on a scale from 0 to 10, a report of 0 signifies the absence of pain; 10 is unbearable pain. Many pain doctors will try to reduce a patient’s pain to the level of 5. McIver tried for a 2. He prescribed more, and sooner, than most doctors.Some of his patients sold their pills. Some abused them. One man, Larry Shealy, died with high doses of opioids that McIver had prescribed him in his bloodstream. In April 2005, McIver was convicted in federal court of one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and eight counts of distribution. (He was also acquitted of six counts of distribution.) The jury also found that Shealy was killed by the drugs McIver prescribed. McIver is serving concurrent sentences of 20 years for distribution and 30 years for dispensing drugs that resulted in Shealy’s death. His appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court were rejected.
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{ 2 comments }
After reading this almost thorough article by Tina Rosenberg, I have questions left unanswered…
1. the lying witnesses to the trial – who admitted deceiving Dr. McIvey – and got prescriptions of higher opioid doses to be sold, never got punished nor subjected to any prosecution?
2. the DEA to whom doctors pay a fee for registration, won’t help in tracking down suspected abuse in the guise of not wanting to be “involved in the practice of medicine”; yet, they determine whether an undefined line of overprescription is traversed – like they are practicing medicine by setting the limits at which patients can be treated?
3. is it because there are less doctors, with many encumbrances, that are easier to control and track than liars who will deceive these same doctors trying to help pain patients?
4. WHERE IS JUSTICE IN ALL OF THESE???
What a poorly written, poorly researched article. I have never seen so many half-truths and outright incorrect statements regarding pain management in my life. Good job Tina, your article is a piece of shit.
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