Chronic Pain Management and Prescription Medication
According to research published in Pain Physician Journal (2006), 90 percent of people in the US receiving treatment for pain management are prescribed opiate medication. Of that number 9 percent to 41 percent had opiate abuse/addiction problems. In addition, prescriptions for medications like Vicodin and Percocet have increased drastically in the past decade leading to significant medical problems for many people including addiction.
Over the past several years organizations like the International Association for the Study of Pain, the American Academy of Pain Management, and the American Academy of Pain Medicine have all promoted better and safer ways to treat someone undergoing chronic pain management. In fact they have been advocating for many different pain initiatives designed to promote more effective and humane chronic pain management.
For the past 27 years I have been focused on assisting people undergoing chronic pain management who were also experiencing other coexisting psychological disorders including addiction. I have been very active in helping people in recovery from any addictive disorder to develop more effective—and safe—medication management plans to prevent relapse. I have also been focused anyone living with chronic pain to develop effective medication management plans so they do not have the high risk of prescription medication abuse or addiction.
Finding the safest medication protocol possible cannot be overemphasized; when the narcotic medication is taken in increasingly larger doses due to tolerance, the side affects from the medication may become physically and/or psychologically damaging and in some cases even life-threatening. Undergoing chronic pain management is difficult for anyone, but especially for someone with coexisting medication abuse, addiction or other psychological disorders. They can become severely depressed and discouraged. Healthcare providers often become confused and frustrated when their treatment interventions are ineffective and frequently blame their patients.
The problem of managing pain and medication for people in recovery continues to grow and healthcare professionals are left with the challenge of how to effectively address it. Given the biopsychosocial nature of addiction and chronic pain, it is imperative to understand both conditions and implement a multidisciplinary chronic pain management treatment plan.
To that end I have written several books and booklets as well as published many articles to get this information to the people undergoing chronic pain management. In fact, last month I posted a new article on our website 12 Personal Action Steps for Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.
If you would like to see my upcoming trainings and especially to learn about my 20 hour (three days) Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training on December 7-9, 2009 in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here and scroll down to the December 7-9, 2009 for the description and how to sign up.
For an addition resource regarding medication management please go to our Publications page and check out my Addiction-Free Pain Management® Module Four: A Guide for Managing Pain Medication in Recovery that was co-authored by Shelia Thares, RN, MS, APNP. To purchase this module please Click Here. You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com.
To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.
