A Disease Called Pain -CBC television

[Guest guest]

ANNOUNCEMENT

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For some, pain never goes away even after an original injury has healed.

Why does pain turn chronic for some and not others? And why do we know

so little about it? The Nature of Things explores chronic pain in " A

Disease Called Pain " .

Thursday, January 9th

9:00 pm

CBC television

The Nature of Things

" A Disease Called Pain "

http://cbc.ca/natureofthings/

The science and humanity of chronic pain are explored through the

stories of people with chronic pain. The documentary opens with

, a 44 year old Toronto resident who developed fibromyalgia

subsequent to injuries sustained in a car accident.

Look for an in depth feature article on chronic pain on CBC

television's website: http://cbc.ca/natureofthings/pain.html

starting Friday, January 10th.

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~JvR: http://cbc.ca/natureofthings/

Faced with someone suffering, it's hard not to want to turn away. Pain

is too intense a place to stay for too long. But for some people the

pain NEVER goes away, even long after the original injury has healed.

Why does pain turn into chronic pain in some people and not others? And

why do we know so little about it? " A Disease Called Pain " is a one-hour

documentary that will take a look at this dark and deeply complex

experience we call chronic pain.

http://cbc.ca/natureofthings/pain.html

Watch a clip from " A Disease Called Pain "

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Click (RealPlayer):

http://media.cbc.ca:8080/ramgen/cbc.ca/natureofthings/video/pain.rm

" I thought that I was going crazy. The period during which I should

have healed had passed and my doctor thought I should be better, but I

wasn't. In fact, I was getting worse. I began to doubt myself. It was

the not knowing…Pain demands an explanation " . (- - Pain

Patient)

Up until the latter half of the twentieth-century chronic pain was

generally regarded as a physical affliction. Many people suffer in

silence with this devastating condition and often the overwhelming

effects render incapacitation to those experiencing chronic pain. For

most of us, pain generally subsides once our bodies have healed. Others

experience pain daily and the condition is never alleviated, even after

the original injury has healed. It is only recently that chronic pain

has been considered a disease and today some hospitals treat pain as the

fifth vital sign, managing it as they would blood pressure or breathing.

Why does chronic pain develop in some people and not in others? And why

do we know so little about this disorder? A Disease Called Pain delves

into the debilitating and complex condition of chronic pain.

As the documentary reveals, the effects of chronic pain are overwhelming

and unbearable. In addition to chronic pain symptoms, sufferers often

experience an onslaught of emotional states (feelings of despair,

helplessness, sadness, panic, hopelessness and isolation). A Disease

Called Pain will examine the personal stories of individuals suffering

from the disease, by investigating the effects of this life altering

condition.

, a former teacher, suffers from fibromyalgia. Her condition

developed after she was in an automobile accident, altering her body's

physical make-up. Chronic pain, fatigue and chemical sensitivity are but

a few of the many weakening symptoms experiences on a daily

basis. As we discover, the dramatic effects of the condition have

immensely disrupted 's life, leaving her unable to work.

The documentary also investigates the chronic pain of those who are

lacking the appropriate communication skills to effectively express

their pain - children and newborns.

, a 13-year-old boy, frequently suffers from neuropathic pain,

troubling him since birth, as a result of slipped vertebrae in his back.

's adolescence is disrupted by his unrelenting nerve injury pain.

After sustaining several injuries to his body from a tractor-trailer

accident, was left with very little sensation in his left leg. His

condition presented him with a variety of physical challenges and the

inability to perform daily tasks.

Dr. Mailis-Gagnon [photo]

For the first time, Doctors and Researchers are coming to understand the

true nature and complexities of pain. Cutting-edge scientists in chronic

pain research include Doctor Mailis-Gagnon, specializing in

neuropathic injuries; Doctor Clifford Woolf, examining the relationship

between chronic pain and genes. Doctor McGrath and Doctor

Findley, investigate how pain interferes with the brain's ability to

process information and Doctor Celeste ston's study of facial

expressions in infants concludes that while the face of pain is

universal, the experience of pain is individual - reaching across all

ages and cultures.

Although medical research in the area of chronic pain is still in its

infancy here in North America the field is exploding. In the next ten

years we may learn as much about chronic pain as we did in the last

decade about the brain. A Disease Called Pain will take us on a

provocative and timely journey, helping shed light on the dark and

uncharted world of chronic pain.

A Disease Called Pain was produced and directed by Vishnu Mathur.

Allder is executive producer of The Nature of Things.

Relevant Links and contacts: (these links will open in a new browser

window)

The North American Chronic Pain Association of Canada:

www.chronicpaincanada.org/ The Chronic Pain Association of Canada:

ecn.ab.ca/cpac/ The American Chronic Pain Association: www.theacpa.org/

The International Association for the Study of Pain: www.iasp-pain.org/

Institute for the Study and Treatment of Pain: www.istop.org/ Toronto

Western Hospital - Comprehensive Pain Program:

www.uhn.ca/programs/neuro/pages/pain.html

Wasser Pain Management Centre at Mount Sinai: www.mtsinai.on.ca/wasser/

Centre for the Study of Pain at the University of Toronto:

www.utoronto.ca/pain/ The Canadian Pain Society:

www.canadianpainsociety.ca

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