[Source: The New York Times > Health http://www.nytimes.com/pages/health/index.html?partner=rssnyt ]

Dr. Frank Fisher's ordeal lingers as a cautionary tale of what can happen to doctors who treat pain aggressively.
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Treating some of the most difficult cases may mean using large doses of narcotics. Unfortunately, this fear of prosecution has led many physicians to inadequately treat pain. For example, just recently I encountered a patient who was eight days status-post major spine surgery, and the surgeon was using the same dose of medication the patient was taking pre-operatively. Clearly, this patient was having acute post surgical paint that was woefully under treated.