NEWS - AAPM 2009: specialists confront refractory chronic pain

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AAPM 2009: Specialists Confront Refractory Chronic Pain

February 12, 2009 (Honolulu, Hawaii) — The mainstays of chronic pain

medicine include disease-modifying interventions and

mechanism-specific therapies, but these approaches do not help all

patients achieve pain control. Here at the American Academy of Pain

Medicine (AAPM) 25th Annual Meeting, specialists discussed the

challenges associated with management of patients with chronic

refractory pain and how behavioral or psychological approaches may

help treat it.

" Pain is not a symptom, " panelist Moskowitz, MD, from the

University of California, School of Medicine, in Sacramento,

told Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery. " It is a disease, and the

brain undergoes important changes during this process. It is our job

to figure out how to help change it back. "

However, there are limits to what can be accomplished with current

therapies, said session moderator Fine, MD, from the University

of Utah School of Medicine, in Salt Lake City.

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Read the whole article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/588204

Not an MD