Optimal relief for pain at the end of life: a caregiver's tale.
The current opioid crisis-driven partly by medical overprescription and partly by illegal drug abuse-is a significant cultural and professional dilemma in the USA and elsewhere. It has produced a strong reaction in favour of restricting medical use of opioids for pain, especially chronic pain. The author for a quarter century has written about pain from a biocultural perspective, and in this essay-based on his experience as primary caregiver for his late wife-he approaches the question of appropriate opioid use at the end of life.
['Morris|David B|DB|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8194-8551']
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel D017028:Caregivers D059350:Chronic Pain D003695:Delivery of Health Care D006801:Humans D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders D059408:Pain Management D010166:Palliative Care D018454:Spouses D013727:Terminal Care
care of the elderly end-of-life care medical humanities narrative medicine pain management