All over the planet people living with chronic pain are not receiving timely and appropriate treatment interventions for many reasons. For some of these people it’s because they don’t have medical insurance or the ability to pay for the services they desperately need. Others belong to managed care or HMOs that restrict services in what I consider a draconic fashion. Still others may be victims of a workers’ compensation case and are presumed to be faking and trying to defraud the system.

I believe that healthcare services and especially chronic pain management should be a right not a privilege. On October 11, 2004 during the Global Day Against Pain the World Heath Organization (WHO) and the International Association for the Study of pain (IASP) along with many other organizations issued a joint declaration stating that “The Treatment of Pain Should be a Human Right.” These organizations released research documents that showed that the management of pain has been a neglected area of many governments in the developed nations despite the fact that cost-effective methods of pain control are readily available.

The IASP recently released the results of a systematic review of the literature regarding the relationship between waiting times, health status and health outcomes for patients awaiting treatment for chronic pain. Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Despite the differences across studies, the results of the systematic review indicate that waits of 6 months and over for treatment for chronic pain are associated with deterioration in health related quality of life and psychological well being including an increase in depression scores.

To learn about my views on access to effective chronic pain management please check out my article The Right to Quality Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people undergoing chronic pain management and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders including depression, addiction and other coexisting psychological disorders effectively please consider my book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

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