October 2002
Source: www.newswise.com
A new day is dawning in the field of pain management. A recently-enacted
requirement by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
(JCAHO) in the USA now ensures that patients must receive appropriate pain
management in all healthcare settings. A 24-page supplement entitled Advances
in Pain Management accompanied the September 2002 issue of the Journal
of the American Osteopathic Association (JAOA), and focuses on a variety
of approaches to providing comfort for patients in pain including psychological
therapies, osteopathic manipulative treatment, barriers among physicians
that prevent proper delivery of opioid analgesia, and critical issues surrounding
those who care for the dying patient. Several articles focus on pharmacological
treatment. One barrier to managing pain with opioids (e.g., morphine) is
a misunderstanding of the differences between addiction and physical dependence.
Some clinicians are hesitant to prescribe the quantity of opioids necessary
for adequate pain management due to a mistaken belief that the patient
will become addicted. "With respect to clinical pharmacology, proper control
of pain can be accomplished only when healthcare professionals clearly
understand differences between addiction and physical dependence; they
are not the same," emphasizes the editor of the supplement. The seven research
papers contained in the supplement present evidence that chronic pain can
be managed successfully.
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