Myles Gart MD

Let us all remember when the pen hits the prescription pad to write for an opioid that heroin is an opioid, too.

The evaluation of pain is extremely difficult due to its subjective nature. We need to move to an evaluation of acute pain that not only takes the patient’s perception into account, but also, for the first time, incorporates objective measures of pain into a global assessment matrix.

After years of exaggeration, misinformation and a national epidemic of opioid and heroin abuse, the nation is finally coming to terms with the fact that pain is not the fifth vital sign.