Why are our patients still in pain? Finding a balance in treating patients for nonmalignant pain.

Osteopathic physicians would agree that the cornerstone principle of osteopathic medicine is enveloped in the Latin phrase, Primum non nocere (first, do no harm). Are physicians doing patients harm by allowing them to remain in chronic pain? Conversely, are physicians doing patients harm by supporting a dependence on pain-relieving medication that allows normal functions of daily life? There is a delicate balance that each physician must find in the context of his or her practice of medicine.