Clinician bias toward people with sickle cell disease (SCD) may be tied to stigma around opioid use, rather than race or chronic pain alone, a new study suggests.
“Although patients with sickle cell disease routinely use opioid medications to manage their chronic pain, the vast majority do not have an opioid use disorder,” Monica Peek, MD, the study’s senior author at the University of Chicago Medicine (UChicago Medicine), said in a university news story. “It is a testament to the strength of their character that they do their best to live full lives while managing debilitating pain with the minimum amount of medication. And yet, within health professions and society as a whole, there is a persistent bias that stereotypes these patients primarily as ‘drug-seekers’ rather than regular people managing a chronic disease.”