Chronic pain patients who use either opioids or cannabis are still finding it hard to find new primary care physicians, according to new research at the University of Michigan.
Lead author Mark Bicket, MD, and his colleagues surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. primary care physicians about whether they were accepting new patients with chronic non-cancer pain. The physicians were all based in states with medical cannabis programs.
Of the 852 physicians who said they were taking new patients, 20% said they would not accept patients taking prescription opioids. Nearly a third (32%) said they would not accept a patient using opioids daily.
In contrast, only 18% of doctors said they would not take a pain patient using medical cannabis. And 40% said they would not accept a patient using cannabis “obtained from other sources” — meaning the cannabis probably came from the black market.
Read the full story about the study: Pain News Network
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