True Pain Sufferers Cheated Out of Relief Due to Concerns Over Prescription Abuse
The problems associated with pain management are leading millions of Americans to endure more pain than they should have to simply because of a somewhat broken system.
According to a recent Science Daily post, this growing problem is due to physicians increasingly failing to provide comprehensive pain treatment as a result of inadequate training, personal biases or fear of prescription drug abuse.
One pharmaceutical expert in pain management in the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University believes the issue is reaching crisis proportions and argues that health consumers must be aware of the problem and become more informed, persistent advocates for the care they need and deserve.
"We have more sophisticated pain management techniques available now than ever before," said Kathryn Hahn, a pharmacist, affiliate faculty member at OSU 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 also noted that adequate pain treatment has always been a concern simply because it is not a major part of most physician’s medical training. As the concerns continue to mount over the prescription drug abuse epidemic, those with legitimate needs are likely to suffer.
It is important that doctors, nurses and patients all become educated as to proper pain management techniques. She highlighted recent surveys that found at least 30 percent of patients with moderate chronic pain and more than 50 percent of those with severe chronic pain fail to achieve adequate pain relief.