Pain Relief Network files State Tort Claim vs. WA State; Alex DeLuca; War on Doctors/Pain Crisis blog of the Pain Relief Network; 2008/06/08. [Full text PDF]

See also:
PRN Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, and Damages - 2008
WA’s Interagency Guideline on Opioid Dosing for Non-Cancer Pain - 2007

SUMMARY:
Nature of Relief Sought This lawsuit is the result of grossly misinformed prejudices about opioid(1) pain medications held by high-level Washington public health officials. Those prejudices are identified in medical literature as opiophobia.(2) As a direct result of public health policies based on opiophobia, chronic pain patients in Washington are now unable reliably to secure necessary and appropriate treatment for their severe pain anywhere within the State of Washington. The dilemma of the chronic pain patients arises out of overreaching actions on behalf of senior public health officials, as well as that opiophobia - which has now permeated the entire Washington State health culture and also unlawfully influences medical licensing decisions.

 [Read the entire document in PDF format]

 

The nonprofit Pain Relief Network says the guidelines for prescribing narcotics, written by the Washington state Department of Health and published in March 2007, have influenced pain treatment across the country and have made doctors afraid to give opiate prescriptions.