By Lynn R. Webster, MD
I wrote in a blog last year that efforts to roll back pain as the fifth vital sign are likely to gain traction, despite inaccuracies and flawed thinking. That is precisely what has happened. A recent Medpage Today article titled “Opioid Crisis: Scrap Pain as 5th Vital Sign?” lays out similar flawed arguments touted by Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP). At press time, the American Medical Association had been petitioned by its Illinois