Study: Pain Meds Underprescribed To Black Patients In 90% Of Hospitals

Here's yet another way in which white people make Black people's lives so much harder than they have to be. Black people have been saying for a long time that Black pain is too easily written off by white doctors and medical workers, and now they have absolute proof. Via STAT:

Inequities in health care are pervasive, from access to quality of care, and a new study finds that common opioids such as codeine and morphine are more often prescribed to white patients than to Black patients treated within the same health system.

White patients received both more pills and stronger doses, according to the study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. In about 90% of the 310 health systems studied, the opioid dose prescribed to white patients was higher than the one prescribed to Black patients. On average, white patients received 36% more pain medication by dosage than Black patients, even though both groups received prescriptions at similar rates.

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