Treating Chronic Pain: Options Should Be Different For Everyone

Researchers at Indiana University are working on how to help patients suffering from chronic pain, a critical, oftentimes overlooked health issue that's estimated to affect over 100 million Americans. They're studying multidisciplinary approaches to treatments that involve both the patients' perspectives and hope of future pain management. 

"We learned that sufficient clinical research doesn't exist to show physicians how best to treat chronic pain in adults, many of whom suffer from multiple health problems," said the founding director of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and Regenstrief Institute investigator Dr. Christopher Callahan, in a news release. 

Doctors typically treat chronic pain with a round of opioids or narcotic painkillers. However, previous studies show that for long-term treatment of these issues, medicines like these can be dangerous and are oftentimes ineffective.

"Are opioids the appropriate treatment? And, if so, at what dose and for how long? Could other, less dangerous treatments work for some people? The panel found that, in spite of what many clinicians believe, there is no evidence that pain narcotics -- with their risks of dependency, addiction and death -- are an effective long-term pain treatment. More research is needed to guide effective care for chronic, often debilitating, pain," Callahan added.

Of course, what chronic pain means for one individual will be something completely different for another. Researchers reiterated that each treatment should be custom tailored to fit to the individual in need, involving a combination of medications and or physical or talk therapies.

"In educating their patients, providers might also tip the balance of their cautions about these drugs to highlight that they are important drugs with important dangers to both the patient and those who might obtain them accidentally or illegally. At the same time, the panel heard testimony that patients who responsibly use these medications should not be treated like criminals," Callahan concluded.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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