International Pain News-Paradigm shift needed in way chronic pain is managed

Paradigm shift needed in way chronic pain is managed: McMaster scientist
by Suzanne Morrison


Hamilton - More than 600,000 people in Ontario suffer from chronic pain - back pain, osteoarthritis, painful diabetic neuropathy, persistent pain following shingles, neuropathic pain following accidents and much more. While the pain may be debilitating one moment, gone the next, for most people the pain is constant, never ending.

Health care professionals tend to be bereft when faced with the medical need to ease the pain, as tools are lacking to accurately diagnose the severity of the pain, and tools are limited in terms of easing the pain. Some prescribe medicine, but for many sufferers the pain remains undertreated or untreated. Caregivers often believe that nothing more can be done. So, chronic pain suffers endure their pain in silence day and night while exasperated family and friends keep reminding them they "look normal."

(link below to rest of article)
http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2009/week6/Thursday/0205016.htm