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Painful Subjects: Treating Chronic Pain among People Living with HIV in the Age of Opioid Risk
Author(s) -
Carroll Jennifer J.,
Lira Marlene C.,
Lunze Karsten,
Colasanti Jonathan A.,
del Rio Carlos,
Samet Jeffrey H.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
medical anthropology quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.855
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1548-1387
pISSN - 0745-5194
DOI - 10.1111/maq.12618
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , opioid overdose , opioid , medicine , subjectivity , narrative , chronic pain , medical prescription , addiction , public health , psychiatry , nursing , (+) naloxone , history , philosophy , linguistics , receptor , archaeology , epistemology
Abstract Public narratives often attribute the opioid overdose epidemic in the United States to liberal prescribing practices by health care providers. Consequently, new monitoring guidelines for the management of opioid prescriptions in patients with chronic pain have become recognized as key strategies for slowing this tide of overdose deaths. This article examines the social and ontological terrain of opioid‐based pain management in an HIV clinic in the context of today's opioid overdose epidemic. We engage with anthropological analyses of contemporary drug policy and the nonverbal/performative ways patients and clinicians communicate to theorize the social context of the opioid overdose epidemic as a “situation,” arguing that the establishment of new monitoring strategies (essentially biomedical audit strategies) trouble patient subjectivity in the HIV clinic—a place where that subjectivity has historically been protected and prioritized in the establishment of care.