Everyone's Health

Pain management, an opinion

"Pain is a funny thing. Unless you're the one feeling it, it's basically meaningless."

I had set aside six weeks to recover and done all my work in advance for that period, only to find that I needed twice the time to return to normal daily activities.

Another surgeon wrote to me about doctors' fear of legal action over prescribing narcotics. Yes, the government has unfairly attacked some pain-management specialists who treat dozens of patients with chronic pain.

It is also not true that pain patients get hooked on narcotics, craving ever greater doses. Addicts get hooked; pain patients need increasing doses only when their pain worsens, as often happens to those with advanced cancer.

The American Academy of Pain Medicine, the primary organization for physicians who treat pain, is alarmed by the interim policy statement issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which threatens to make it even more difficult than it now is for legitimate physicians to prescribe adequate pain relief.

Undertreatment of pain is already a public health crisis, and the government should act to improve the situation, not make it worse. Undertreated pain destroys lives. As one young woman put it in an e-mail message: "The effect of pain had an insidious effect on my life, my outlook, my well-being and my relationships in every sphere of my life. Pain is a funny thing. Unless you're the one feeling it, it's basically meaningless."

Another surgeon wrote to me about doctors' fear of legal action over prescribing narcotics. Yes, the goverment has unfairly attacked some pain-management specialists who treat dozens of patients with chronic pain.

Prior | Tell us what you think | Next

Add to Your Social Bookmarks: Del.icio.us Digg Furl Reddit Simpy Spurl Y! MyWeb - Netscape - StumbleUpon StumbleUpon