Relieving-Pain-in-America-A-Blueprint-for-Transforming-Prevention-Care-Education-Research/Pain

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Netterville on July 28, 2011 at 4:15pm

Interesting read. I agree with the need for strategies to drive research and increase understanding, as well as, create better communication and inter-working between pain specialists and PCPs. However, it was a bit more high-level than I would expect a "blueprint" document to be. Is there a more in-depth version with additional information?

 

Obviously, this is another opportunity for hypnosis to be validated as an effective means of pain management (although, as with any study of applied hypnosis, the results will be influenced by many factors - including the skill of the practitioner and the commitment of the clients).A protocol to standardize hypnosis standards used in studies would be helpful (the operator's client satisfaction numbers, total clients seen by the hypnotist performing the techniques, etc) might be helpful.

 

I am personally, not a fan of using electronic medical records (mentioned in the report as one means to collect additional data). I'd prefer my medical records remain private and, if the entire system is automated and paperless, I no longer have any ability to ensure that they do. I realize that this would reduce the amount of data available to the research facilities, but I think they could probably get sufficient data using volunteer and other opt-in sources that are less of a privacy risk and present less opportunity of being used for other purposes outside of the study.

 

My perspective comes from someone who has had a spinal fusion several years ago and experienced a system where the approach to pain management was just more drugs. There definitely need to be more and better options in my opinion and hopefully, the strategies referenced in the link will be a start in the right direction.

 

One thing that I rarely see mentioned, but that helped me with managing my pain was weight loss. I seem to have much less pain at 180lbs than I did at 200lbs. Perhaps it's just a function of being healthier in general, but most of the people I know who have chronic pain tend to be overweight as well (I know it's anecdotal but it does seem to be the case in my experience).

 

Thanks for posting the link.

 

Kelly