Blacks, Hispanics less likely to get strong pain drugs in U.S. emergency rooms

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Xinhua

Blacks, Hispanics less likely to get strong pain drugs in U.S. emergency rooms

www.chinaview.cn 2008-01-02 06:25:34

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Despite increases in the overall use of opioid drugs to relieve severe pain, black and Hispanic patients remain significantly less likely than whites to receive these pain-relievers in emergency rooms, according to a new study released Tuesday in Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study examined treatments for more than 150,000 pain-related visits to U.S. hospitals between 1993 and 2005. It found that 31 percent of whites received opioid drugs compared with only23 percent of blacks and 24 percent of Hispanics. About 28 percent of Asians received the drugs.

In contrast, non-opioid pain relievers, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen were prescribed much more often to non-whites (36 percent) than to whites (26 percent).

"Studies in the 1990s showed a disturbing racial or ethnic disparity in the use of these potent pain relievers, but we had hoped that the recent national efforts at improving pain management in emergency departments would shrink this disparity," said Mark Pletcher, lead author of the study. "Unfortunately, this is not the case."




Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/02/content_7349727.htm

[Mythsaje]

1. I'm not surprised...

My ex has a problem getting the kind of pain meds she needs sometimes as well. Because of some of her medical issues, she is all-too-easily misidentified as a drug abuser. It's unfair, but there it is.

[azurnoir]

2. This is also true in clinics

and in one case a black male patient died quite possibly because the Doctors assumed this person only wanted pain killers and did not look for further reasons even after repeated visits, it should be noted that this was a specialized oncology clinic, the patient was a cancer survivor and had been treated with a type of therapy known for recurance, even after a couple of months worth of visits the MD's did not look any further then to do drug tests on the patient until he collapsed, by which time it was too late.