Why is there such a problem in this country when it comes to chronic pain management?  Today I want to share of few of my thoughts about why this continues to be a growing problem.  First of all our medical system does an extraordinary good job of managing acute pain and medical crisis.  Unfortunately, it falls short in the areas of prevention and chronic pain management.

Using acute pain medication for chronic pain management is one reason I believe we have such a big problem with chronic pain patients developing problems with their pain medication.  Another problem that is finally getting more notice is opiate-induced hyperalgesia. 

Opioid-induced hyperalgesia or opioid-induced abnormal pain sensitivity is a phenomenon associated with the long term use of opioids such as morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone (including OxyContin), and methadone. Over time, individuals taking opioids can develop an increasing sensitivity to noxious stimuli, even evolving a painful response to previously non-noxious stimuli (allodynia). Some studies on animals have also demonstrated this effect occurring after only a single high dose of opioids.

Another major problem is people not getting adequate treatment soon enough.  When it’s much easier—and in the short-term cheaper—to write a prescription for pain meds than to spend the time, money and effort conducting a multidisciplinary assessment followed by a treatment plan that addresses the entire problem.  Many times prescribing pain medication is just a short-lived bandage.  This of covering up a festering infected cut with just a great looking bandage.  What happens next is ugly.  The same is true for many people undergoing chronic pain management.

Even though many well respected pain management organizations promote and encourage multidisciplinary treatment for chronic pain; it still is not happening.  Some of the organizations are the following that you can discover for yourself.  The International Association for the Study of Pain, the American Academy of Pain Management, the American Academy of Pain Management Nurses, and the American Pain Society. You can find these and many other useful websites on our Addiction Free Pain Management® Resources Page.

To learn more about using a best-practice and research-based chronic pain management treatment protocol please check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Article page. 

If you’d like to receive training for helping people with chronic pain and coexisting disorders, including addiction, I’m very excited to announce we are presenting my Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training in Sacramento on August 5-7, 2010. To learn more about this and my other upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.