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July 13.2011
Page 9
Chronic Pain Cost of Health Care System
(AP)— Nearlv a th ird n f A m p ririin c
r
l
>
.
..
gers for weeks to months — and too often feel
stigma rather than relief from a health care
system poorly prepared to treat them, the
Institute of Medicine said Wednesday.
The staggering tab: Chronic pain / c o s , -
"Pain is not simnle " Cone «»id " w , «
~ r «•
physicians need to be healem and educators s u W
as well as technicians. We certainly don't care
want to be Dill m ilk "
d ,
X c t m s l w t y about overprescrib-
ing the nation a. least $558 billion a year in
medical bills, sick days and lost productivity,
ing narcotic painkillers, and law enforce-
ment steps to fight the serious problem o f
the report found. That's more than the cost of prescription drug abuse can be one barrier
heart disease, the No. 1 killer.
to pain care. But the institute countered
All kinds of ailments can trigger lingering that it's far more likely for a pain patient to
pain, from arthritis to cancer, spine problems get inadequate care than for a drug-seeker
to digestive disorders, injuries to surgery, to walk out with an inappropriate prescrip-
Sometimes, chronic pain can be a disease all tion. W hile newer, better medicines are
its own, the report stressed.
n e e d e d , th o se n a rc o tic
Whatever the cause, ef­
painkillers are a safe and
fective pain management is
effectiv e option for the
"a moral imperative," the re­
right patient, the report
port concludes, urging the
said.
government, medical groups
But barriers to good care
and insurers to take a series
extend far beyond that is­
of steps to transform the field.
sue, said the panel, which
"We're viewing this as a
analyzed research and the
critical issue for the United
reports of more than 2,000
States,” said Dr. Phillip Pizzo,
p a tie n ts and c a re g iv e rs
Stanford University's dean
about pain's toll.
of medicine, who chaired the
Because pain can't be
months-long probe.
seen like bleeding, or felt like a lump, or X
For too long, doctors and society alike rayed like a broken bone, or heard like a
have viewed pain "with some prejudice, a lot skipped heartbeat, health workers who
of judgment and unfortunately not a lot of wrongly believe the intensity of pain should
informed fact, he said.
correlate to a specific m edical finding may
The toll isn t surprising, said Dr. Doris K. dim inish or even dism iss a patient's com-
Cope, pain chief at the University of Pitts- plaint, the report found,
burgh Medical Center, who paused between
In fact, pain is highly subjective. Two
patients Wednesday to read the report. The people with the same injury may feel different
population s getting older and less fit, and degrees of pain depending on genetic factors
more survivors of diseases like cancer live for that affect pain tolerance, what other illnesses
many years with side effects from treatments they have, stress or depression, and even
that saved them.
whether they feel support or criticism from
Too many patients think a pill s the answer, health workers or their families,
she said, when there are multiple different
Care must be tailored to each patient. Yet
ways to address pain including physical too few doctors are trained in its manage-
therapy, stress reduction, weight loss, and ment, the report said, citing a study that
teaching coping skills. Patients who take found stand-alone pain courses aren't re-
consuming coun-
^ r i f t ^ E X e ^ X X
„
tion for low back pain but not much c h e ^
P
And prom pt care for acute pain, like that
as°” d l V ” “ ‘’" ’.‘“ T 0“ ' * im por,a" '
/ We" S enous paln ,h a>
Pr°Pe r |y
treated som etim es can hijack the nervous
system and essentially rew ire i, for p a in -
d h
P
is " “ ^ ' t ° " ‘hat
resolved.
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