Excellent article about pain, the undertreatment of pain management, and a doctor's risk of being a drug trafficker while helping patients deal with chronic pain.
A couple of tidbits:
- 20% of adult Americans suffer from chronic pain
- Pain costs $61 billion per year in US productivity (no medical costs included)
- Pain kills: can lead to stress in the heart and lungs, heart attacks, stroke, degradation of the immune system, suicide
- Most people do not become addicted to painkillers. Less than 10% of people have a predisposition for addiction
- High doses are not always dangerous. They can be safer than high doses of aspirin, Advil, or Tylenol, which are always dangerous in high doses
- Undertreatment of pain: only 50% of sufferers have sufficient relief, less than 50% of cancer patients have adequate pain relief
- Pharmaceuticals are more abused than all illegal drugs except marijuana
1 comment:
tuesday, 19 june, 2007 12:15 MAT
a COUPLE of tidbits ?? =P
so house is in that 'less than 10%' apparently addicted to pain medication... hrmm... makes the show interesting, yes.
,` )
Post a Comment