Doctors must listen to patients about their pain – and if that means prescribing opioids, so be it

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Don’t you know I have a clipboard here?” I found it impossible to do that, because the chronic pain I experience varies throughout the day, and putting a number on it would be entirely arbitrary. Dr Michael Mosley, in an intriguing episode of BBC’s Horizon, said opioids were effective in less than one in 10 cases of chronic pain, and he presented alternatives. I’m willing to give anything a go – but I have to admit, I started to feel some scepticism when Dr Mosley presented the idea that you could talk chronic pain away with the aid of a course. This brings us back to where I started out, and the nurse’s insistence that I put a number on my pain, instead of listening to the evidence I was providing them with.