Chronic Pain Informative Essay

* Acupuncture is said to help relieve pain by either diverting or changing the painful sensations that are sent to the brain to then alert you to the pain within the body. (Arthritis Research UK)

The patients who are in pain requires pain relief, but many of them with chronic pain have trouble with prescribed opioids either due to psychosocial problems

Persistent pain has psychological and social implications for daily life. It can severely limit an individual’s ability to work and be a productive member of society and decreases quality of life. In the face of increasing stigma and barriers to care, patients are struggling to procure the legal medications that alleviate their debilitating pain.

Traditionally, doctors prescribed opioid treatments for pain-related medical conditions. Chronic pain in particular is difficult to treat. While the search for a cure is underway, the best most patients can hope for is effective management of their condition.

The mentality of some patients that are prescribed painkillers is that it will cure whatever illness they may have and permanently take away the pain; however painkillers, are supposed to be used to reduce pain for a short period of time to bring comfort to a patient. Due to this mentality, it is becoming more common to run to pain medications; even when some pain can be treated with other methods. In order to start to cure this epidemic, patients need to be compliant with how they are supposed to properly use these types of medications. (Grounder,

Doctors and other medical professional specialize in providing quality medical care for their patients, are now fighting to control pain without the risk of misuse and abuse of prescribed medications by their patients. One disadvantage of quality care is providing opioid medications to help control extreme pain for some patients. Many patients have become dependent on opioid—highly addicted painkillers such as fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, propoxyphene, and methadone. According to 21 Health Organizations and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) cited by ACPM, “effective pain management is an integral and important aspect of quality medical care, and pain should be treated aggressively” (the American College of Preventive Medicine, 2011). Aggressively fighting patients’ pain with opioid medications have led to an increase rate of addictions to the level in which it is known as uncontrollable epidemic in today’s society.

Chronic pain is an important public health problem that negatively impacts the quality of life of affected individuals and exacts a tremendous cost in both healthcare costs and lost productivity. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its landmark report on relieving pain in American estimated that 100 million individuals suffer from chronic pain at a socio-economic cost of between $560 and $635 billion annually [IOM, 2011]. Opioids have been increasingly prescribed for the management of chronic pain, and along with this increase in use has come an increase in opioid misuse and abuse. Of the opioids that are abused, 60% are obtained directly or indirectly through a physician’s prescription.

While it may initially seem that exercise will hurt even more with chronic pain, the reality is that physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce pain. According to Dr. Wayne McCormick, the chief of the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Washington, "Staying active is one of the most effective ways to make living with chronic pain a more tolerable experience...We try to make people continue to be active because when people have pain they tend to focus on it more. There have been trials on whether it is best to keep people at rest or moving about with pain. The best is keeping active." If your senior loved one needs transportation support, emotional support, or even physical assistance to keep physically active or engage in an exercise routine, in home care personnel are there to

Prior to 2000, nurses would routinely monitor a patient’s blood pressure, pulse, respirations and temperature: the four vital signs. After 2000, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations added pain as the fifth vital sign and nurses were required to evaluate a patient’s pain level using a numeric scale of 0 to 10 (Florida Office of the Attorney General, 2012). This led to a flood of opioid based pain relievers hitting the market and an increase in physicians writing prescriptions for these medications. Previously opioids had been used for treatment of cancer related pain, but broadened to include management of chronic non cancer pain (Edlund, et al., 2014). Research by Edlund

America is struggling with a new epidemic that is taking several lives every day. “Prescription drug overdoses claim at least 40 lives daily” ("Prescription Drug Overdose," n.d.Para 1). The opioid crisis occurring across the nation is devastating. A major problem is that once patients become dependent on these prescription medications, they are reportedly seeking more affordable alternatives such as heroin or fentanyl. In addition, patients may be switching to heroin when their doctor suddenly discontinues the medication they have become dependent on. Chronic pain is a controversial issue because opioid management can be beneficial but also detrimental as seen in recent years. “Between 2002–2016, deaths soared by 533% nationwide, from under

It’s a societal norm to seek out a physician when you are in pain, and society’s expectation is that the physician will do something about it. Sadly there will always be those who abuse the systems in place. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2011, found that approximately 52 million people have used prescription drugs for non medical reasons. Statistics show that roughly 80% of heroin addicts initially misused prescription opiods (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2015). There is always potential that taking prescription opiods can lead to patient abuse. “Unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have quadrupled since 1999” (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2011).

In the United States, over 50 million people suffer from chronic pain. The annual cost of chronic pain is around $100 billion. Moreover, 46% of the people suffering from chronic pain lack adequate pain relief (http://www.painfoundation.org/painful.htm).

Supportive therapy – this include distraction techniques, hypnosis, massage, physical therapy, exercises to reduce stress, and hot and cold applications. Group therapy at pain centers may also beneficial.

As a chronic pain sufferer, you should know that you're not alone. Chronic pain impacts many people and, as a result, is the subject of much research and experimentation. This means there is a wealth of information available about pain management. Invest some time researching pain management methods and give them a try to see what works best for you. People have used hypnosis, biofeedback, meditation, acupuncture and many other methods of pain control with varying results. Research and experimentation under your doctor's supervision may be the only way to know what works best for

Most medical treatment for chronic pain includes from pharmaceutical treatments for pain management, which can range from over-the-counter medicines like aspirin to prescription drugs. The problem with chronic pain management treatments that involve drugs is that they lose their effectiveness. Worse they actually can create more chronic or that can add to the chronic pain cycle.