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Sunday, November 9, 2014

Change drug policies to ease pain of terminal cancer patients with morphine, doctors say

VISAKHAPATNAM: Palliative care or pain management for cancer patients urgently needs government's attention and a change in narcotics and healthcare policies. While focus is given to early screening and treatment of cancer, pain management is almost totally neglected, especially in the government set up, point out experts.

Several cancer patients undergoing treatment die earlier or commit suicide as they are unable to bear the excruciating pain in the last stages of terminal cancer, thanks to the non-availability of and non-accessibility to morphine. Most Indian states have very strict narcotic regulatory policies that make it very difficult for hospitals and pharmacies to easily procure morphine, an opium extract, without a special license.

Even though an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) study states that more than 25% of Indian cancer patients die without taking any pain medication, private and government doctors from the state said that more than 75% of advanced cancer patients living in non-metro cities die without having access to palliative care. 
In India, more than 10 lakh new cancer cases are diagnosed every year and around 50% of these are in advanced stages.

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