No Need to Endure Chronic Pain

[Guest guest]

No Need to Endure Chronic Pain

Fri Mar 1, 7:10 PM ET

By Janice Billingsley

HealthScoutNews Reporter

FRIDAY, March 1 (HealthScoutNews) -- As many as 50 million Americans

endure debilitating chronic pain every day.

The good news is they don't have to suffer.

" Chronic pain is a major epidemic, but people do not have to put up with

pain that is affecting their lives. There are remedies that can reduce

the intensity of pain and improve functioning, both mentally and

physically, " says Dr. Elliot Krames, a San Francisco anesthesiologist

and a board member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), the

primary professional organization for doctors treating pain.

Krames says that as many as two-thirds of the approximately 75 million

people who suffer from pain are not getting adequate pain treatment.

Among the most common kinds of pain reported to doctors: persistent pain

after surgery, particularly in the back and neck; untreated arthritis,

which generally affects the elderly; and neuropathic pain caused by

diseases such as shingles.

To bring awareness of the importance of pain treatment, Feb. 28 to March

3 has been designated as the first National Pain Awareness Week by the

AAPM and the National Pain Foundation (NPF), a non-profit group that

provides peer-reviewed information and support to chronic pain sufferers

on the Internet. A pain conference will be held in San Francisco this week.

When it comes to chronic pain, you may have so adjusted your life around

your pain that you don't even recognize how compromised you have become,

Krames says. Perhaps you dress differently because you can't hook your

own bra, or you don't cook dinner because you can't stay on your feet.

Changes that are more serious can include quitting your job or dropping

out of school, or isolating yourself from your loved ones because you're

depressed.

" There is often a loss of income, or people lose the relationship of

loved ones who don't understand, " he says. " Pain becomes a disease in

its own right. "

Yet, many people do not get the treatment they need, Krames says. The

reasons for this are varied, and, thankfully, slowly changing.

" The number one myth that prevents people from receiving appropriate

help is the belief that opiate use will inevitably cause addiction,

which is absolutely not science, " he says, because doctors know how to

properly prescribe medication.

Also not true, he adds, is that people will need more and more

medication over time because they build up tolerance to the medication.

Many doctors are also uneducated about how to assess and treat pain, as

medical schools give short shrift to the subject. Patients themselves

can also resist medication, thinking pain is somehow necessary and

" good " for them, Krames says.

" But smart people are becoming more aware that pain can be treated.

There are more articles in magazines and newspapers, and more and more

information [that is now available about pain treatment], " he says.

The medical community is also responding. The American Board of Medical

Specialties, which regulates courses of medical study, is looking into

recognizing pain management as a primary specialty. In addition, the

states of California, Texas and Florida have reevaluated their state's

regulations to facilitate pain management treatment, he says.

Finally, Krames says, " the medical industry is being turned on to the

treatment of chronic pain. "

This means that, in addition to traditional pain remedies like analgesic

opiates -- Oxycontin and Duragestic patches are the two most common --

that decrease pain and improve function, companies have designed new

drugs that specifically treat different types of pain. Also being

developed and manufactured are implantable devices that can deliver pain

relief to say, the spinal cord, and new devices to deliver medication to

the body more efficiently.

" Although the problem of under-treatment of pain has been widely

reported, no one's really focused in on the specifics, " says NPF

co-founder Dr. Rollin Gallagher. " People are paying attention because of

the convention. "

The pain conference will host approximately 1,000 health professionals

and will include reports on new research, available resources for pain

management and the progress being made in providing treatment to chronic

pain sufferers.

" We're trying to get people up to speed on the importance of treating

pain, not only because under-treatment causes terrible pain, but because

it has a negative effect on health-care costs -- people stay in the

hospital longer, diseases become worse if pain isn't treated, " he says.

What To Do: For doctor-approved information about pain management,

including a chat room to talk with others who suffer from chronic pain,

visit the National Pain Foundation <http://www.painconnection.com/> .

Very practical advice about how to rate your own pain level can be found

at Ohio State University Medical Center

<http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/osuhosp/patedu/homedocs.pdf/medicatn.pdf/no\

ndrug.pdf/paincontrol.pdf>

..