Millions of people with chronic pain stemming from a medical condition are not being adequately treated as physicians fail to deliver comprehensive pain treatment. This could be because of insufficient training, personal biases or fear of the patient becoming addicted to prescription pain medications. This is one of the reasons we created the pain management program at The Treatment Center
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According to a pain management expert from Oregon State University, the issue is becoming a significant problem in the public health forum. The recommendation is to have patients become educated health consumers and be proactive in their choices for pain management.
"We have more sophisticated pain management techniques available now than ever before," said Kathryn Hahn, a pharmacist, affiliate faculty member at Oregon State University and chair of the Oregon Pain Management Commission. "But many doctors are not fully informed about all the options available, and also often turn patients away because they’re very concerned about the problems with prescription drug abuse."
Hahn cautions that this only results in people suffering in pain unnecessarily. More than 80 percent of trips to the pharmacy are because a patient is in pain.
Many medical schools do not adequately train physicians in pain treatment. Often, medical students receive only a cursory education on opiate use. Prescription drug abuse has increased in the United States at an exponential rate over the past ten years. Because of this, physicians have become concerned about prescribing painkillers. In a 2006 survey of American teenagers, 62 percent reported that pain pills were in easy access in their parents’ medicine cabinets. One survey discovered that admissions for prescription opiate abuse to federally funded treatment programs increased 342 percent from 1996 to 2006.
American physicians are worried, with many choosing not to care for patients with long-term pain problems. This often leaves patients feeling alone and desperate, and results in pharmacy thefts, Internet purchases and "doctor shopping". Some of these physicians are way of criticism from colleagues if they have many "pain patients" or write too many prescriptions for pain medications.
Hahn believes that a cooperative approach to pain management is the answer - one that involves patients, physicians, nurses and pharmacists. At The Treatment Center, our dedicated team of physicians can help you design a program that will help you conquer your pain management problem and live a healthy life without pain and pain medication. A healthy life can be yours
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