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From: geb@cadre.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Aspirin vs. Codine
Message-ID: <619@cadre.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 17-Oct-86 18:09:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: cadre.619
Posted: Fri Oct 17 18:09:25 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 20:51:18 EDT
References: <1823@bu-cs.bu-cs.BU.EDU> <529@cci632.UUCP> <21708@rochester.ARPA>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 20

In article <21708@rochester.ARPA> ray@rochester.ARPA (Ray Frank) writes:
>  My question is this, does a person confined to a hospital bed in a modern
>hospital have any rights?  Do patients have to endure pain while their crys
>go unheard.  Don't doctors realize that everyone is not the same and that
>one pill every four hours is fine for one but inadequate for another?  I 
>realize that nurses cannot increase medication without a doctors orders, but
>they certainly must have the training necessary to assess the situation
>on a patient by patient basis and relay this information to the doctor.  

There are some doctors, and more nurses that worry too much about the
patient becoming an addict.  Most surgeons will do whatever they can
(barring safety considerations---you must realize that in larger doses
narcotics can be very dangerous in patients with compromised respiration,
or in those in which the mental status must be followed closely) to keep
the patient pain free.  Addiction is rarely a problem with acute conditions
such as injuries and operations.  Chronic pain (which may be excruciating
also) is another matter entirely, and in these cases there are too many
doctors who don't worry enough about addiction.  The amount of pain
medication the patient requires is a complex function of physiology and
psychology.  Each patient must be titrated.