Education and Research
Research and education undergird reform in the war on pain because of widespread inadequate knowledge of pain management. Education of DEA agents, state medical boards, physicians, medical students, pharmacists, and the public on the urban myths causing opiophobia is needed to win the war on pain. Medical schools are notoriously devoid of pain management education. A general lack of physician knowledge about the difference between opioid tolerance or physical dependence and addiction has led to inadequate pain control. The mandatory education of healthcare providers is necessary because opiophobic providers have resisted education and training on the clinical use of opioids. Information dissemination to both the public and to healthcare providers needs to be more efficacious. The White House should participate, along with public interest and professional organizations, in pain management information dissemination.
Along with education and effective dissemination of information, pain research is needed in this frontier of medicine. Pain pharmacotherapy research especially is needed as empiric studies lag behind other areas of medicine such as cardiovascular disease. Researchers need to perform more investigations in the areas of pain management that lack sufficient evidence-based therapeutic guidelines. More research in opioid dosing is needed to determine safe maximal doses to allow maximizing pain management safely. Pharmaceutical research into new forms of opioids with less abuse potential and fewer side effects are greatly needed.
The federal government and private institutions need to fund education and research. Much education can be given and research undertaken under the auspices of pain societies, funds, and study groups such as the American Pain Society, the American Academy of Pain Management, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the Mayday Fund, the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin, the World Institute of Pain, the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, and others.
