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Paineurope: Issue 1, 2005. Brief Notes:
December 22, 2009 | Filed Under: Latest Readings | Comments(0)- Self-help advice may be enough to treat back pain: Researchers in Warwick and Oxford in the UK suggests that traditional physiotherapy, alone, may be no more useful for treating back pain than appropriate advice about self-management and modifying beliefs and behavior (http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7468/708). The study concluded that a single advice session from a physiotherapist was as effective as traditional physiotherapy treatments. Researchers stress that since there is no magical cure for back pain, the need is for better symptom self-management. Dr. Adams Implications: Our data fully supports that effective pain treatment is multidisciplinary.
- Also in the UK, researchers have shown that topical anti-inflammatory drugs used for the treatment of osteoarthritis have little benefit if used beyond 2 weeks. Osteoarthritis is a long-term, usually lifelong problem and sufferers need drugs that demonstrate sustainable efficacy. Dr. Adams Implications: at the present time, all pain drugs lack the longitudinal research that supports their use for the average 7 years that the majority of CNCP patients have had their pain. Therefore, CNCP patients should know the side-effect profile of each of their medications, and take personal responsibility for discontinuing problematic ones any time personally risky symptoms arise.
- European pain specialists have organized to help improve their CNCP knowledge and skills. The Pan European Pain Specialist (PEPS) program met in The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland during 2004. The purpose was to enable pain specialists to meet, share ideas and experience clinical practice within a variety of European countries. Each meeting has a multi-country delegation of about 20 pain specialists, and consists of a 3-day program of seminars and tours of local pain clinics. The meetings have offered many pain specialists a unique insight into pain management around Europe and provided them with an opportunity to visit some of the world’s leading institutions. Dr. Adams Implications: clearly how pain treatment takes place depends on the healthcare conditions of which it is a function. The impact that the solo practitioner mindset (personal self interest) to treating pain in the US, vs. the national health system mindset (system-wide reduction of costs) in Europe is apparent. Europeans are far ahead of the US in organizing against pain and using the multidisciplinary interventions that have proven more effective for treating CNCP. Two simple factors seem to account for this: self interest is systematically less reinforced in Europe, and the reduction of costs is more reinforced.
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