Physician's Guide to Medicine - Intractable Pain

Does Missouri law protect the prescription of controlled substances for the treatment of intractable pain?

Yes. State law authorizes physicians to prescribe, administer, and dispense controlled substances for therapeutic purposes to patients who have been diagnosed with a condition resulting in intractable pain. The law defines intractable pain as "a pain state in which the cause of pain cannot be removed or otherwise treated and which in the generally accepted course of medical practice no relief or cure of the cause of the pain is possible or none has been found after reasonable efforts that have been documented in the physician´s medical records."

The Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts cannot discipline a physician solely for prescribing, administering, or dispensing a controlled substance for a therapeutic purpose for a person diagnosed and treated for intractable pain as long as the diagnosis and treatment is clearly documented in the physician´s medical records.

The law does not authorize physicians to prescribe controlled substances to persons they know or should know are using the drugs for other than therapeutic purposes, and does not apply to persons being treated for chemical dependency.