Re: WorkSafeBC’s multimodal approach to chronic noncancer pain management

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 62, No. 1, January February 2020, Page 11 Letters
By: Helen Hays, MD, CCFP, FCFP

WorkSafeBC appears to conclude that opioids are not useful for injured workers unless they help people get back to work. This article [BCMJ 2019;61:176,179] contains insufficient information in making conclusions about the use of opioids to help injured workers with chronic noncancer pain return to work. Patients in this group may not be able to return to work but may sleep better, have improved mood, and have better family relationships with proper pain control. The article is also missing key information about the nature of the injuries incurred by these workers (e.g., severe electrical event, loss of limb, severe back injury, head injury). It is true that the use of opioid analgesics for chronic pain is a last resort, following treatment with rehabilitation therapy, acupuncture, etc., in all but extreme cases. Physicians are not to blame for the appalling epidemic of deaths due to street fentanyl. The current restrictions arising from the epidemic have left many patients in a painful limbo, which may lead many of them to turn to these same dangerous street drugs.
—Helen Hays, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Black Creek

This letter was submitted in response to “WorkSafeBC’s multimodal approach to chronic noncancer pain management: New hotline for physicians.”

Helen Hays, MD, CCFP, FCFP. Re: WorkSafeBC’s multimodal approach to chronic noncancer pain management. BCMJ, Vol. 62, No. 1, January, February, 2020, Page(s) 11 - Letters.


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