Hi Nick and all,
Thank you for your recent message https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/opioid-drugs-5-regulation-opioid-access...
You reflect: "I am always wondering how the desire to regulate opioid access intersects with the availability of legitimate opioids for pain relief, particularly given the experience of the United States and the commercialisation of these drugs by pharmaceutical companies there. How can the conversation move forwards from the binaries presented by two extremes - the overprescription witnessed in the US and the absence of use elsewhere - without either foreclosing the possibilities offered by balanced access and restriction?"
This is an important challenge.
Our current discussion focuses primarily on opioid misuse. But as you say there is a related and equally important (arguably more so) issue with regards to opioid availability.
I have personal experience to share on this. My wife Valou is French and her mother died from metastatic breast cancer when Valou was 20. Her mother was in great pain but was denied morphine on the basis that it might cause addiction. Great suffering could have been prevented.
Your experience in India suggests that great suffering is multiplied thousand-fold, million-fold across the country.
Misconceptions and the desire to regulate in France, India and worldwide have largely failed the needs of patients. We know, collectively from science and from systematic reviews, when and how to administer opioid drugs, but we have abjectly failed to translate this evidence into policy and practice.
I look forward to learning more from you and others about your experience in India and worldwide.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org