Good Info; Great Opportunity for Hypnotists

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/giving-chronic-pain-a-medi...

I thought you would appreciate this article regarding findings from the Institute of Medicine about chronic pain.

*Doctors tend to throw up their hands, referring patients for psychotherapy or dismissing them as drug seekers trying to get opioids.

“If the doctor can’t figure out what the underlying problem is,” she went on, “then the pain is not treated, it’s dismissed and the patient falls down the rabbit hole.”

Among the important findings in the Institute of Medicine report is that chronic pain often outlasts the original illness or injury, causing changes in the nervous system that worsen over time. Doctors often cannot find an underlying cause because there isn’t one. Chronic pain becomes its own disease.

*It will be up to medical schools to begin better education of doctors in the treatment of pain, and the National Institutes of Health to decide whether to promote research into chronic pain. Patients, too, need to be educated about the importance of early treatment of pain rather than gutting it out or waiting until it has become severe and chronic.

Now that we have the file attachment function, I've attached the pain references for anyone who doesn't have them.

Tags: chronic, pain, research

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Permalink Reply by Keithanthony on July 20, 2011 at 3:53am

Kathy you are so right I was told to adjust my lifestyle which wasn't very helpful when my pain was at times causing blackouts. However I'm happy to report despite an entirely unhelpful prognosis from doctors, I'm virtually pain free having overcome it when I realised that a lot of the pain, so bad I couldn't effectively at times use my right hand, was nowhere near the original growth in the shoulder socket. I haven't had surgery on the growth I've been using excercise, relaxation, and visualisation on the arm to reduce the growth which was I suspect pressing nerves triggering the excrutiating pain in my entire arm.

The question in my mind is why dont medical professionals tell you this, instead of saying effectively "Get over it!"

Keithanthony

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Permalink Reply by Henxy on July 20, 2011 at 4:29am

The very first sentence of that article got my back up.

I really can't be dealing with people who make gross generalisations, as if they've surveyed 'most doctors' and found out their motivations.

Just as I can't be dealing with doctors who make gross generalisations about hypnotists/therapists, I find it irritating to the extreme. Why can't people just make their point, based, as it is, on anecdote?

Chronic pain is renowned in the medical world as a pain which is no longer (and maybe never was) useful to the patient in an obvious way. There are major differences between types of pain. That's why they coined the phrases 'chronic' and 'acute' pain.

No doctor I have ever met (and there's been a fair few over the years) has ever 'dismissed pain'. Big, fat, hairy GRRR!

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Moore on July 20, 2011 at 4:55am

I get quite a few clients who come in and tell me, "my doctor doesn't know what else to do for me." I only included excerpts, and the link to read the entire article. It is about chronic pain.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on July 20, 2011 at 5:11am

Hi Henxy-

I have the highest regards for your opinions and respect your expertise, but when in comes to treating chronic pain or in this case mis-treating chronic pain in the US - you don't know what you are talking about...

The sentence that bugged you is from a report by the IOM which is the scientific body that advises government on matters of science and medicine in the US -- I assure you that they are not in the habit of making gross generalizations and their opinions are actally based on meta-reviews of many well designed surveys of large numbers of doctors and their patients.

The fact is MOST primary care doctors dealing with chronic pain in the US are dissmiive, rude and really don't understand chronic pain. One review found that 81% of chronic pain patients over 50 years old were very dis-satisfied by their doctor-patient relationships and were not getting meaningful relief.

Hugs,

Michael E. @ http://www.nycanxietyhypnosis.com

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Permalink Reply by Henxy on July 20, 2011 at 5:30am

Hi Michael,

I am not purporting to speak for the US population, I am sure you are more than capable of doing so yourselves. And from what you say, I'm glad to be this side of the pond.

It's the concept of it; and even to the point of lies, damned lies and statistics, I maintain that people cannot guarantee an accurate reflection of any one group without surveying all, or most, of its members. No tranche selection is truly representative. Just look at government elections!

My main issue is that when we see a single article which makes such a bold statement, the tendency is to extrapolate internationally; rather than to acknowledge the restrictions of the article's sample.

Furthermore, such comments just lead to a greater gap between 'us' and 'them', rather than a closer working relationship to help the patient... And as someone with a foot in both camps, I'm beggining to get sore being this far spread apart!