Experts: Many cancer patients suffer from pain unnecessarily

Health experts yesterday expressed concern about the country’s low consumption of morphine, indicating that many cancer patients suffer from pain unnecessarily.

Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Mario Villaverde said the Philippines is among the “lowest” consumers of morphine or opioid analgesic in Southeast Asia.

Citing data from the United Nations’ International Narcotics Control Board, Villaverde said the country consumed some 20 kilograms of morphine in 2006, translating to 0.235 milligrams per capita.

“The balance needs to be tilted in favor of the therapeutic value of the use of morphine for the estimated 200,000 Filipino cancer patients experiencing pain every day, without disturbing what currently seems to be the effective control of regulated drugs used for non-therapeutic reasons,” he said in a press conference at the DOH-run East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) in Quezon City.

It is estimated that the country needs to consume at least 30 kilograms of morphine a year to strike such a balance.

To address this, Villaverde said the DOH has earmarked P10 million for the purchase of morphine for pain management of indigent patients with advance cancer living in remote areas.

The project coincided with yesterday’s celebration of World Cancer Day. Some 74,000 individuals die of cancer in the Philippines every year.

Under the project, the morphine will be distributed in EAMC, Philippine General Hospital, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center and small private hospices nationwide that are taking care of terminally ill cancer patients.

The project is part of the Cancer Pain Relief Program of the DOH with the World Health Organization, Pain Society of the Philippines (PSP), Philippine Cancer Society (PCS), Dangerous Drugs Board, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and several non-governmental organizations.

PSP president Dr. Henry Lu said the “mindset” toward morphine has been hampering efforts to manage cancer pain.

Lu added there are doctors who are not keen on having “yellow prescription pads” for fear of legal consequences while there are patients who have the wrong perception that they could get addicted to the painkiller.

Former PCS president Dr. Antonio Villalon, however, gave assurance that morphine could not be addictive if it would be taken by someone who is experiencing pain and in adherence to doctor’s prescription.

Villalon said a person who is in pain has a high level of tolerance and that the pain-killing medicine is absorbed by the body that is actually needing it so it could not lead to addiction.

Yellow pads are being issued by the DOH to oncologists authorized to prescribe painkillers. But before getting the license to have these pads, a doctor needs to undergo training and meet other requirements.