Introduction

Across America, two opposing attitudes or paradigms of thinking currently exist in regards to the medical management of intractable pain. Empirical, long-range medical research has brought new light into the darkness of the Old Paradigm. However, despite the studies that support the New Paradigm, millions of people in our country continue to suffer needlessly because safe, medical treatment is denied to them by regulatory agencies and healthcare professionals. The Old Paradigm ignores three decades of international studies that support opioid pain treatment in cancer pain patients and severe intractable pain patients. An important goal of the National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain is to make public this new information that will bring the Old Paradigm thinking into the New Paradigm.

The Old Paradigm believes:

• It is not safe or prudent to prescribe pain medication on a continual basis.
• Opioid pain medicine is addictive and can cause long-term damage to internal organs.
• Pain patients should be tough and learn to live with pain.
• When pain patients continue to ask for increased pain medication, they are exhibiting addictive behavior.
• Physicians who prescribe pain medicine are no different than illicit drug dealers and should be treated as such.

The New Paradigm knows (supported by three decades of empirical medical research):

• Opioid pain treatment is safe and effective when monitored by licensed physicians.
• Less than 1% of chronic pain patients become addicted or experience long-term physiological damage as a result of prolonged, controlled opioid pain treatment.
• When pain patients receive adequate pain treatment that relieves their chronic pain and associated depression, patients can lead relatively normal, productive lives. Their friends and families frequently give positive reports of an increased "quality of life," previously thought impossible.
• When pain patients continue to ask for increased pain medication, they are not addicted but experiencing increased pain. Once patients receive adequate doses of appropriate pain treatment, patients stop asking for increased levels of medication.
• There is a world of difference between licensed medical professionals who prescribe pharmaceutical drugs for legitimate pain patients in a medically controlled environment and illicit drug dealers who sell drugs in an uncontrolled, nonmedical environment.

"Perspectives in Intractable Pain Management" will show you how the Old Paradigm continues to influence many healthcare perspectives despite overwhelming evidence and medical association endorsements that support the New Paradigm. Also, we will present you with documentation and clinical studies that support adequate pain management and the steps that are being taken to move the thought processes from the Old Paradigm to the New.

Back to Table of Contents

Introduction
NEXT: Definitions and Background Information
Governments' and State Medical Boards' Perspective
Healthcare Professionals’ Perspective
Patients’ Perspective
The Healthcare Reimbursement System’s Perspective
Intractable Pain Management Updates