Concerns over abuse of the drug OxyContin may seriously impede how physicians treat pain in legitimate patients, says John Shuster, M.D., director of the UAB Palliative Care Center.

"The backlash against OxyContin has caused physicians to treat pain less aggressively in many cases, to the detriment of their seriously ill patients. The emphasis on managing pain is fairly new, and I fear many patients will suffer needlessly as physicians rethink using any powerful painkillers in the wake of such adverse publicity."

Shuster says banning narcotics like OxyContin would deprive medicine of a potent weapon against pain, while not dealing with the root problem, which is drug abuse.

---University of Alabama Birmingham

Back to The Science of Mental Health