Dr. Philip Eatough, the Rumson physician who faces criminal charges for alleged overprescribing painkillers, got some key support today at hearing over the fate of his medical license, the Asbury Park Press reports.

At a hearing before the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners, another physician testified that Eatough’s prescribing approach was consistent with at least one school of medical thinking.

From the story:

Dr. Jeffrey A. Berman, an expert in pain management, who is on the staff of Summit Oaks Treatment Center in Summit and a retired colonel in the Army Medical Corps, chipped away at the state’s case by arguing the prescribing of painkillers without a complete review of a patient’s past record is not improper.

In addition, Berman said, the continuing prescription of pain medicines reflected in Eatough’s records were consistent with at least one accepted school of pain management.

But under questioning by Deputy State Attorney General Siabahn B. Krier, Berman
admitted there were other pain experts who would not have approved the opiate
prescriptions issued by Eatough.

He conceded his findings were at odds with an expert previously called by the state.

That, he said, represents different philosophies in the field of pain management.

“If the patient needs the medication there is no upper limit to opioid prescribing,” he said, in defending Eatough’s action and enunciating his own views.

Separately, Eatough faces an 11-count federal indictment against alleging illegal drug distribution and money laundering through pain-management clinics he owned in Middletown and Keansburg. The Keansburg office is now closed, Eatough’s attorney told the Press.

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