The Jury Is Still Out On How Best To Treat Chronic Pain (medical news today article)

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The Jury Is Still Out On How Best To Treat Chronic PainMain Category: Pain /

Anesthetics <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/pain/>

Also Included In: Complementary Medicine / Alternative

Medicine<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/complementary_medicine/>

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Article Date: 08 Jun 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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How best to alleviate chronic pain, a leading cause of disability and

employee absenteeism, continues to perplex both patients and their doctors.

A review of recent studies on pain medicine appearing in the June 2008 issue

of the *Journal of General Internal Medicine* reports that while various

approaches and combinations of therapies to treat pain have advantages and

disadvantages, researchers don't yet know how to determine which is best for

individual patients.

Among the approaches to pain management studied were those relying on the

prescription of opioids (drugs such as morphine, Percocet and Vicodin),

surgery, and alternative medicine (acupuncture, herbal remedies).

" We conducted this review of pain management strategies because doctors,

especially primary care doctors who manage the bulk of patients with chronic

pain, are frustrated and want to know how to better alleviate what is often

debilitating pain. Many of these physicians have not been well trained in

pain management. And while many are paying more attention to pain than ever

before, especially given JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of

Healthcare Organizations) and Veteran Affairs mandates that pain be regarded

as the --fifth vital sign,-- they don't know what treatment will work for a

given patient. They want guidance and we found very limited information, "

said the paper's senior author, J. Bair, M.D. Dr. Bair is an

assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of

Medicine, a research scientist with the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and an

investigator at the Roudebush VA Center of Excellence for Implementing

Evidence Based Practice.

Chronic or recurrent pain affects more than 75 million Americans.

" We have found that there are huge gaps in our knowledge base. For example,

none of the opioid research trials lasted longer than four months, a small

fraction of the time during which many chronic sufferers typically

experience pain and are prescribed this potent class of medication, " said

Dr. Bair. " Similarly there were insufficient trials of herbal remedies

versus other analgesics (i.e. pain medicines), in spite of the fact that

pain management is one of the major reasons for the use of alternative

medicine. "

Dr. Bair's own research focuses on understanding the interface between

affective disorders such as depression and anxiety and chronic pain and

developing strategies to improve pain management in the primary care

setting.

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*Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.*

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Source: Fox Aisen

Indiana University <http://newsinfo.iu.edu/>

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