by Glen Brizius

Created on: December 21, 2009

Chronic pain is not a random headache, or a stubbed toe.  That is acute pain, which passes quickly.  As defined by experts, chronic pain is pain that is still present / recurs frequently even after six months have passed.  It is a health issue that does not discriminate.  Anyone could be stricken by it - all ages, races, and occupations.  It is a devastating health problem that some experts estimate affects a total of one in ten Americans - millions, and millions, of people.  This means that chronic pain afflicts more people than heart disease.  More than cancer.  It interferes with every aspect of a patients life: their work, the quality of their relationships, their self-confidence, their self-esteem.  It brings depression, guilt, and anxiety, making it hard to both work and to play.

Chronic pain can *shatter* lives.

In times of medical need, most Americans turn to physicians - in particular, their "family doctor" - the general practice / family practice "primary care" physician.  Since (unlike with sources of acute pain - a broken bone, etc), sources of chronic pain are by definition around for an extended period, the physician must turn to pharmaceutical solutions.  The good news is that science has produced a wide range of very effective, very well tested, very cheap pain relievers - most of which are derived from natural plant sources.  The success in this area has been so great that there is essentially no level of pain which cannot be controlled by the correct dosage of the correct pain medication.

However, this is the core of the problem.  It would seem like the simplest issue in the world: determine (very easily) the level of pain the patient is suffering, prescribe one of many effective pain medications, and the patient returns to a normal life.  It's perhaps one of the easiest medical "problems" to solve.  The medication is rapid acting, taking effect within an hour in almost all cases, and offers around-the-clock relief.  But there is a problem, and it's not a medical problem, it's a societal problem: most pain medications - the opiods, the most effective pain relievers - are addictive.  They're *narcotics*, a dirty word in our society.

The (faulty) belief sequence goes something like this: narcotics are addictive, meaning that they should not be used to treat long-term pain because the patient will then become addicted to them.  As a chronic pain patient

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