Are men and women with severe cancer pain treated in the same way?

Although both sexes reported the same level of worst pain in a past week, men were more likely to have a prescription for high-potency pain medicine and receive higher doses of morphine.

Women being first evaluated at a cancer pain clinic reported more pain “right now” and higher average pain during the past week.  However, a review of their medical charts showed they were getting  less morphine and had higher average pain scores than men.  They were more likely to say that their pain was poorly controlled. Read the rest of this entry »