Chronic Pain — The Invisible Public Health Crises

Chronic Pain -- The Invisible Public Health CrisesA Call for Moral Leadership“I am an invisible man. No I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe: Nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me.”- Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison’s famous novel, The Invisible Man, starts with this passage, which also reminds me of the problem of chronic pain. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Relieving Pain in America, documented the more than 100 million Americans (almost 1 in 3 and surely someone whom you know and love) suffers from chronic pain, at an economic cost of $6 billion and an incalculable psychological cost. We named pain as a “disease” because of its profound effects on the brain and its interference with multiple domains of the quality of life of sufferers. The committee identified chronic pain as a public health problem, given the sheer numbers affected, and the opportunities to intervene to prevent acute pain from becoming chronic pain. However, the report is now almost four years old, and it is fair to say has not really moved the needle in doing what we implored in the IOM report—“changing the way in which pain is judged, managed and perceived.” Why is that?Because pain is subjective -- and therefore difficult to measure by the usual medical tests -- i...

Source: blog.bioethics.net - February 7, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Practical Bioethics Tags: Health Care bioethics chronic pain medical ethics pain resources syndicated Source Type: blogs