Analgesic prescriptions: time for painful choices

Pain can kill... and rdquo; The practice of analgesia, like many facets of medicine, remains as much an art as a science. Even today, patients needlessly suffer pain. According to 2008 WHO figures, an astounding 80 percent of the people on the planet have inadequate access to treatments for pain. Cultural, societal and religious attitudes to pain (and the tolerance of it) and mdash;as well as the common perception that pain is a normal part of aging and mdash;contribute to acceptance of suffering. As well, from the point of view of the caregiver, control of pain is frequently relegated to a matter of secondary importance within the scope of the patient's medical illness.