Talking morphine: Pain and prognosis in Indian cancer care.
Pain can be a pervasive feature of cancer, particularly in regions such as India, where the disease is rarely detected in its early stages. Yet over recent decades, morphine, a "gold standard" pain medicine, has been rarely used in India. This article draws on anthropological discussions of clinical...
| Published in: | Medical Anthropology Quarterly Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Mar2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=183918118&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 183918118 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 07455194 GFS jtl: Medical Anthropology Quarterly issn: 07455194 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Mar2025 vid: 39 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 183918118 10.1111/maq.12895 ppf: 1 ppct: 12 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 235KB tig: atl: Talking morphine: Pain and prognosis in Indian cancer care. aug: au: Surawy‐Stepney, Nickolas affil: Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King's College London, London, UK su: India Pain management Medical disclosure Morphine Prognosis Cancer treatment Communication strategies sug: subj: Pain management Medical disclosure India Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing Medicinal and Botanical Manufacturing Morphine Prognosis Cancer treatment Communication strategies keyword: cancer morphine pain palliative care cancer morphine pain palliative care ab: Pain can be a pervasive feature of cancer, particularly in regions such as India, where the disease is rarely detected in its early stages. Yet over recent decades, morphine, a "gold standard" pain medicine, has been rarely used in India. This article draws on anthropological discussions of clinical disclosure in Indian cancer care to complicate assertions that this is because pain is missed or ignored by healthcare workers. Instead, in a context where the disclosing of prognoses is partial and indirect, I argue that morphine has gained a communicative function. Typically withheld until the "end of life", the drug has come to be read as a death sentence. It has become an analgesic and a prognosis. It is an object that talks in situations where direct communication is often avoided. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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