Pain Contracts

On April 27 the Center for Practical Bioethics convened a broad spectrum of pain management professionals to consider the utility and the ethics of pain contracts or agreements. The meeting focused on professional, patient and policy issues around physician use of contracts to prescribe opioids and other pain medications.

The Center will produce a policy brief from comments delivered during this gathering and the November issue of the American Journal of Bioethics will be devoted to the concept of pain contracts.

In this three part series, The Bioethics Channel podcast examines the professional, patient and policy implications of pain contracts.

Part 1: Pain Contracts as Policy: A Good Idea?

• Pain Contracts: Great Good or Great Harm?, Scott Fishman, MD, University of California-Davis, April 30, 7 minutes 10 seconds
• Pain Contracts: Unintended Consequences, Richard Payne, MD, Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life, April 30, 6 minutes 24 seconds

Part 2: Pain Contracts: Good for Patients?

• Pain Contracts: A Patient Perspective, Carlton Haywood, PhD, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, 9 minutes 42 seconds
• Pain Contracts: Social Determinants, Carmen Green, MD, University of Michigan, 10 minutes 11 seconds
• Pain Contracts: Balance at the Bedside, Will Rowe, President and CEO, American Pain Foundation, 5 minutes 4 seconds

Part 3: Pain Contracts: Policy Implications

• Pain Contracts: Too Many Variables, Aaron Gilson, Director – Pain and Policy Studies Group, University of Wisconsin, 10 minutes 18 seconds
• Pain Contracts: Trust but Verify?, Ben Rich, University of California-Davis, 7 minutes 33 seconds