Common sense in prescribing pain medications for the Louisiana physician.

Louisiana physicians often face difficult predicaments in treating patients with chronic pain complaints. On the one hand, there is a greater appreciation for the debilitating impact of chronic pain on quality of life and better recognition that chronic pain is a disease in its own right deserving treatment. On the other hand, we regularly learn of arrests of physicians for prescribing these medications and read reports of exploding pain medication abuse. This article dispenses common sense advice for the Louisiana physician in approaching chronic pain issues such as defining your treatment population, obtaining independent corroborating records, prescribing extended-release pain medications when possible, considering adjunctive treatments to reduce total opiate use, collaborating with colleagues regularly, utilizing treatment agreements, employing sensible verification methods of proper medication use, opening the doctor-patient relationship to include concerned family or friends, using psycho-social indicators of good functioning, and reappraising the success of treatment at appropriate intervals. By employing these common-sense approaches Louisiana physicians can approach pain management prescribing with more assurance and confidence.