Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2007
Patient perspectives on criminal prosecutions of pain management practitioners:lessons from the Fisher-Miller case.
The profound effect of the filing of criminal drug trafficking charges against health professionals on the patients are described. Two high profile cases in which a physician, Frank Fisher, and a pharmacist, Stephen Miller, were prosecuted for providing opioid analgesics for pain patients are described. The patients' personal perspectives on their being labeled as drug abusers for using prescribed analgesics that improved their quality of life and the way in which other health professionals and society related to them are described. In spite of the fact that the charges were dismissed, lasting harm to the professionals, their patients and society resulted from this prosecution.
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The purpose and activities of the Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin are discussed, especially in its role as the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Policy and Communications in Cancer Care. Issues relating to the need for balanced opioid policy, the International Narcotics Control Board, opioid availability, overly restrictive national laws and regulations, and specific examples of improvements that have resulted from work of the PPSG are described.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2006
ReviewDexmedetomidine: a novel analgesic with palliative medicine potential.
Dexmedetomidine has gained popularity in anesthesia and critical care for use in deep sedation and analgesia due to a combination of its efficacy and safety compared with other available agents (e.g., opioids, benzodiazepines, propofol) conventionally used in these settings. This brief review is meant to introduce this unique agent to the palliative care field, as dexmedetomidine may hold promise for patients in hospice and palliative care settings whose symptoms are refractory to usual therapies. [Be sure to be clear in the abstract that more studies are warranted and its role is not well defined and is complicated by significant drug interactions, invasive i.v. route and has a significant side effect profile.]