Managing Pain: Dispelling the Myths

[Guest guest]

I guarantee that this one from the American Academy of Family Physicians

is worth the time and nuisance of opening a PDF! Also, the three

paragraphs below from the conclusion of the presentation may be worth

printing and handing to your physician if he or she is not taking your

pain seriously.

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People can have acute pain without suffering, and people can

suffer without having pain. Clearly the two are separate and

distinct, but unfortunately they often co-exist. When pain becomes

chronic and is inadequately treated, it causes suffering.

People feel not only the immediate, present pain, but anticipate

and fear the experience of pain in the future.49

To ease suffering, family physicians should make every

effort to include patients in decisions regarding pain management.

Increasing patient input helps to allay their

pain and anxiety and, ultimately, their suffering.

The bottom line is that failure to aggressively control

pain causes suffering. As Ducharme puts it, " .if they [patients]

suffer, it is because we have chosen for that to occur,

not because it is unavoidable. " 10

" Managing Pain: Dispelling the Myths "

http://www.aafp.org/PreBuilt/videocme/managingpain_mono.pdf

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I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org