Pain is the “all-time number one cause for people to seek medical attention”, but don’t listen to your doctor.
Doctors know very little about pain. Medical schools offer only one hour of training in how to understand and treat pain.
“Considering the available research and medical technology we have today, it’s a travesty that in 2008 so many pain sufferers are untreated or under-treated because of lack of awareness, education and misconceptions about pain and pain treatment.”
Bank on this:
“Pain costs an estimated $100 billion a year in medical care and lost work.”
The failure to treat pain adequately is the combined fault of doctors, patients, the legal system and the health care system as a whole.
Pain rewires our nervous system, quickly, and is both a disease and a primary cause of disease.
Less than two percent of patients using medication for pain become addicted. Addiction is a different process.
“The collision between the war on drugs and the war on pain has created a perfect storm of controversy.”
Bailout needed?
Ignorance and superstition about pain is costing our nation a great deal.