Enduring Chronic Pain: Nobody Should Have to Suffer

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Enduring Chronic Pain: Nobody Should Have to Suffer

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=28422

01 Aug 2005

Simone Orton - once a runner, baseball player and figure skater -

found herself curled up in a fetal position during a bout of agony so

powerful, she wondered if she would ever live a pain-free and active

life again.

Her muscles were twitching from head to toe. The woman who prided

herself on not letting anyone know the extent of her pain was

vomiting repeatedly and moaning. Her terrified husband rushed her to

the emergency room.

Orton had lived with chronic pain since an accident at age 12 that

crushed two of her vertebrae. Many doctors told her that nothing

serious was wrong with her in the years that followed. Some doctors

suggested that the problem was all in her head. She persisted, until

a rheumatologist finally diagnosed her with a kind of arthritis known

as ankylosing spondylitis, which caused her spine to fuse together

and to be completely solid.

Even after the diagnosis, however, Orton continued to suffer, often

in silence. But this trip to the hospital altered everything. The

peak of her pain was so high that she thought she might die. Doctors

and nurses struggled to get her pain under control.

And on day six of her nine-day hospital stay, Orton, now 42, had a

fateful meeting with Carmen R. Green, M.D., associate professor in

the U-M Medical School's Department of Anesthesiology and pain

specialist at the U-M Health System's Center for Interventional Pain

Medicine.

Green " walked in and took over, " Orton recalls. " At that point she

didn't feel I was adequately being taken care of, pain-wise. "

Green developed a pain-management plan for Orton that included

regular fine-tunings of her pain medications, as well as ways to deal

with the mental and social burdens associated with living with

chronic pain.

Far too many people suffer from chronic pain without receiving

adequate treatment, Green says. " Pain is a thief in the night; it

steals people's livelihood, " she says. " Pain is under-treated. It

really is a public health crisis. If we do not do something about the

pain epidemic, it's going to significantly impact this society. "

Pain also is an issue that typically receives varying amounts of

attention, depending on a patient's demographics, she says.

" The pain complaints of certain populations, including the elderly,

minorities and women, do not receive the same attention as those of,

in general, Caucasian men, " Green says. " Our research at U-M is

focused on how age, race and gender influence the pain experience. We

also look at how those factors influence health care providers'

decision-making as it relates to pain. "

One-fifth to one-third of Americans live with pain, Green says. This

number is increasing rapidly due to high rates of obesity and

inactivity, improvements in medicine and technology that allow people

to live longer, and other societal changes.

For instance, someone who would have died from a car accident or

cancer 20 years ago now may be able to live a long life. " Despite the

fact that we can save and prolong their lives, we now may end up

treating them for chronic pain problems, " Green says.

But treatments are available, including medications - ranging from

over-the-counter medicine to prescription-only opioid analgesics - as

well as psychological counseling for the depression and anxiety that

often accompany chronic pain, relaxation training, physical therapy

to improve a person's function and mobility, and more. In addition,

many types of nerve blocks are available to treat many painful

conditions.

" We have a lot of things in our tool box, " Green says. " Nobody should

have to suffer from pain when so many treatments are available. "

And how is Simone Orton doing? The woman who once needed a wheelchair

when her pain and arthritis were at their most debilitating is back

on her feet, continuing with an active lifestyle and in control of

her pain.

" I'm doing so well that at my last visit with Dr. Green, she said she

didn't need to see me for three months, " Orton says. " It felt like a

graduation. "

Facts about chronic pain:

-- Chronic pain is pain that persists; it may be off and on, or it

may be constant. It can be from an injury, illness, or a medical

condition such as arthritis.

-- UMHS pain specialist Carmen R. Green, M.D., has found through her

research that there are differences in the diagnosis and treatment of

pain among racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the elderly.

-- Treatments for chronic pain include medications, acupuncture,

nerve blocks, local electrical stimulation and brain stimulation, and

surgery, according to the National Institute of Neurological

Disorders and Stroke. Other treatments may include psychotherapy,

relaxation, physical therapy and behavior modification.

-- For more information about ankylosing spondylitis, the condition

Simone Orton has, go to http://www.spondylitis.org.

-- For more information about Dr. Green's research, go to

med.umich.edu/anesresearch/Green.htm.

University of Michigan Health System

2901 Hubbard St., Ste. 2400

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2435

United States

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