RNS, Pain, August 2005
2:15
URL http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/hmpain.htm
Enduring chronic pain: ‘Nobody should have to suffer when treatments are available'
UMHS pain specialist helps patients find ways to live with
their chronic pain Suggested Lead— One-fifth to one-third of Americans live with pain, Green says. This number is increasing rapidly due to high rates of obesity and inactivity and improvements in medicine and technology that allow people to live longer. Here is Andi McDonnell to tell us what can be done about it. . .
Pain is a public health issue. Not enough attention is paid to pain. Pain is a thief – it steals people's livelihood. It's the number one cause of disability in this country, the number one reason why patients consult their physicians.
Dr. Carmen R. Green, (M.D.), associate professor in the University of Michigan Medical School's Department of Anesthesiology and pain specialist at the U-M Health System's Center for Interventional Pain Medicine tells us . .
“The number of people living with pain is estimated to be one in three, one in five Americans. We suspect the epidemiology, that there will be an increasing prevalence of people with pain this current century. Why? We have an increasing rate of obesity. We have people who've been in need to be more active, so wear and tear o their joints and as we become heavier, then you're putting more and more pressure on those particular joints. As we live longer pain is going to definitely impact our ability to successfully age. We also have technology that we didn't have 10, 15, 20 years ago. What people used to die from, whether it be cancer, whether it be a motor vehicle accident, we can now save their lives. But some of those, despite the fact that we can save their lives, now we may end up with pain problems and chronic pain problems which need to be addresses.”
Green tells us that pain also is an issue that typically receives varying amounts of attention, depending on a patient's demographics.
“Our research at the University of Michigan is really focused on how age, race and gender influences pain, the pain experience, and we also look at how those factors also influence health care providers' decision-making as it relates to pain.”
“What we do know is that the pain complaints of certain populations meaning the elderly, minorities, and those complaints of women don't receive the same attention than those of, in general, Caucasian men.”
Many treatments are available to doctors today. No one should have to suffer from pain when so many treatments are available.
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News |
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