The Glaring Difference Between Pain Medicine and Pain Management

In the chaotic, profit-driven American health care landscape, the friction between pain medicine and pain management is peppered with ethical and emotional proportions.

Countless studies prove that pain management – multidisciplinary and preventive care – is more effective than all other forms of chronic pain treatment.

Why are patients not receiving the pain management methods they require and deserve if that is the case?

It is no surprise that the rampant rise of band-aid solutions, such as pain medicine subscriptions and interventional procedures, is largely driven by profit.

Pain medicine doctors may also be referred to as pain medicine specialists, pain management doctors, or pain medicine physicians.

A study on multidisciplinary pain clinics reveals a 20% to 40% reduction in pain behaviors for patients who have access to these services.

The study also reveals that cost benefits and cost-effectiveness in multidisciplinary pain management are higher than surgery, stimulators, pump implants, and pain medicine such as chronic opioid prescriptions.

By prioritizing optimal pain management, physicians and their patients steer clear of the following dangers:

• Greater or unrelated health risks and disabilities
• Repetitive diagnostic tests
• Exposing patients to the risks of diagnostic tests (such as prolonged radiation)
• False positives and negatives lead to inappropriate pain management
• High health expenses
• Delicate interventions and surgeries
• Unaddressed, persisting pain behaviors
• Failure to provide psychological and emotional support, rehabilitative care, and multidisciplinary therapy
• The impaired quality of life
• A sense of brokenness and disability on the patient's behalf, born out of the idea that their chronic pain is uncurable.

Physicians are aware that repeated intervention may damage a patient. More than simply dispensing pain medicine or having patients undergo a handful of tests and treatments, doctors are responsible for addressing chronic pain's physical, psychological, and social dimensions.

Optimal pain management recognizes that chronic pain requires more than symptom relief to restore a patient's quality of life.

Much like any other area of specialization, pain management borders on trust between doctor and patient. Patients must feel like they have a partner in their fight against pain. They should feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable about their pain.

This can only be possible if doctors are compassionate and have no vested interests other than the well-being of their patients.

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