Pain Research and Training Boost News

October 1, 2003

Groups Back Move to Boost Pain Research, Training

By Todd Zwillich

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) Sept 24 - A coalition of healthcare groups

called for increased national attention to untreated chronic pain

Wednesday, and backed a congressional bill designed to boost research

and physicians' knowledge of pain management.

Experts urged Congress to pass a bill that would spend $61 million over

three years on a National Center for Pain and Palliative Care Research

at the National Institutes of Health. The bill would also create six

regional pain research centers where leading scientific teams could draw

on federal funds to conduct studies and boost clinical training.

The bill, called the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2003, would fund a

national medal campaign on pain awareness, and boost pain treatment

benefits in the Medicare+Choice managed care program.

Supporters said that the bill would help foster research on the

pharmacology and physiology of pain, as well as increase awareness of

pain management among young physicians and doctors in training

" Patients arrive every day taking high doses of pain-killing medication,

yet they are desperate and demoralized, " said Dr. R. Saper, a

professor of neurology at Michigan State University and a past president

of the American Headache Society.

As many as 50 million Americans report chronic pain due to arthritis,

back problems, cancer, and other ailments, according to a survey

released by the American Pain Society. The US Surgeon general estimated

that chronic pain costs the economy $100 billion per year in lost worker

productivity and health costs.

As many as half of all chronic pain patients also report depression,

according to a 1997 American Pain Society Survey conducted in Michigan.

Still, less than 5% of US medical schools require trainees to take

courses in pain management, said Dr. Marc B. Hahn, dean of the Texas

College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth.

" At the root of this is an attitude of prejudice toward the pain

patient, " Saper said.

" The doctors get to the point where they can't handle it properly, " Rep.

Mike , R-Mich., the bill's sponsor, said of patients with lasting

pain.

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