Pain And Prejudice
To observe
that people with chronic pain in America are treated like second class citizens
is a simple truth. And sadly man-made
influences significantly contribute to a hostile environment for people with
pain.
The
challenges encountered by some 110 million people with chronic pain (Institute
of medicine report June 2011) include the following:
§ Archaic,
unscientific classification of controlled substances.
§ Shortage
of doctors willing to treat pain because of persecution of pain doctors and
restrictive regulations making easy
access for pain treatment difficult.
§ Promotion
of false claims of prescribed pain medications causing epidemics of heroin
addiction and od deaths. For instance regularly CDC publications
wrongly disseminate
scientifically feeble information by representing statistical associations as
if they were causative.
§ Popular
media broadcasting dramatic personal stories of death and heroin addiction
based upon false CDC claims.
§ Burdensome
attendance and travel regulations for pain patients in need of methadone (daily
visits restrictive travel).
§ Gross
underestimation of adverse impact of chronic pain (premature death, brain
atrophy, depression, social decline).
There are many effective solutions to
provide adequate care for pain patients without increasing crime. However not
much can be done unless we face a painful reality:
Living with chronic pain in
America is to suffer more pain because of man-made prejudicial laws.
No comments:
Post a Comment