Managing Pain: Legal and Ethical Considerations

“Is there anything you can give me for my pain?” Are there any clinicians who never had a patient utter those words? Treating pain is simple, right? Not exactly. A combination of factors — societal, legal, and ethical — have compounded the challenges for physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) who earnestly attempt to ameliorate and properly manage their patients’ pain. Two examples below illustrate how clinicians sometimes walk a tightrope, balancing between prescribing too much or too little pain medication.