States Move Toward Adoption of Pain Policies

Following the adoption of the Federation of State Medical Board's "Model Policy for the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain," last May, state health professional regulatory boards in Missouri, Minnesota, and Virginia adopted new pain policies:

• The Missouri State Board of Healing Arts recently adopted a modified version of the Federation's model policy. To read the full text of the policy, go to http://pr.mo.gov/boards/healingarts/CSGUIDE.pdf.
• In June 2004, the Virginia Board of Medicine adopted the policy in its entirety (read the full text at www.medsch.wisc.edu/painpolicy/domestic/vamodpol.htm).
• The Minnesota boards of Medical Practice, Nursing and Pharmacy issued a "Joint Statement on Pain Management" in September of 2004. Full text available at www.state.mn.us/cgi-bin/portal/mn/jsp/content.do?subchannel=null&programid=536904249&sc3=null&sc2=null&id=-536886235&agency=BMP.

At the same time, the Pain & Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin provides public access to the full text of all state pain policies at www.medsch.wisc.edu/painpolicy/matrix.htm. Comments and questions are always welcome.

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