But last August, just weeks after Tolen earned a 25 percent raise and started to pay off debts, Hurwitz lost his medical license. Without medication, Tolen is again jobless and using a wheelchair. But I can't imagine making it to my next birthday in this pain. Tolen is one of thousands of chronic-pain sufferers denied help because relief happens to come from a controlled substance. Hurwitz treated over 200 patients, and in the months since the Virginia Board of Medicine stripped him of his license on the grounds that his practice was too risky and his monitoring of patients inadequate, two of his patients have committed suicide.
Many physicians are fearful.
Over 100 doctors who prescribe narcotics lose their licenses each year, and 40 percent of pain specialists admit that they undermedicate patients to avoid trouble. The result is a vicious cycle. Because so few doctors treat chronic pain with narcotics, those who will are asked to help a deluge of patients under less than ideal circumstances. Hurwitz says he couldn't find it in his heart to turn them away. With so many patients, something was bound to go wrong for Hurwitz, and it did.