Constant Pain Can Change the Way a Patient Behaves

Re “Rethinking Approaches to Pain Relief” (Oct. 1), I cannot tell you how angry I am at the doctor who voiced his moralistic opinion that pain is good for you.

After a fairly long life, I have seen many beloved friends and relatives die after horrible suffering due to the lack of pain relief provided by the American medical establishment. Our traditional medical providers are internationally notorious for ignoring or under-treating real pain. These days any American is better off to choose to die in a foreign country rather than endure the ordeal inflicted by hospitals in this nation.

Constant pain alters the personality, even the character of the victim. The whole quality of life deteriorates. And the pain itself becomes an illness far worse than the trauma or disease itself.

Urging victims to endure pain is like telling children whipping is good for them. Just as with such children who grow up to become abusers and angry psychopaths, the person in pain is likely to turn on society and on life itself.

JOANNA THOMPSON

Pacific Palisades