I should perhaps clarify that pain specialists in our state generally want to consult and offer medication suggestions and injection therapies, but will not write prescriptions for narcotics for the patients -- that is left for their primary physician.
We do have self-styled "pain doctors" that just see patients for problems that require controlled substances and little else, but they tend to be doctors with no special qualifications whose clinics shut down from time to time for board review, and who lose their DEA privileges from time to time.
When my patients complain about my draconian measures, I explain that I don't want to end up like Dr. So-and-so, whose clinic keeps getting shut down.
Brian
