A recommendation for doctors to treat pain as a ‘fifth vital sign’,coupled with a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry and a consumer culture created a perfect stormTwenty-two years ago, in 1996, and the influential American Pain Society introduced the concept that pain should be treated as a “fifth vital sign”,alongside the normal things doctors routinely check in their patients – body temperature, blood pressure, or heart rate and breathing. America’s medical profession broadly welcomed the understanding and began to ask patients routinely how much pain they were in. Related: US drug companies accused of being 'cheerleaders' for opioids Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk