APS Press Room
News Highlights from The Journal of Pain • March 2007
The Peer Review Journal of the American Pain Society
| For immediate release | Contact: Chuck Weber (847) 705-1802 |
Pain Specialist Shortage Hinders Care
US Board Certified Pain Physician Practices: Uniformity and Census of the Locations
Brenda Breuer, Marco Pappagallo, Julia Y. Tai and Russell Portenoy
Beth Israel Medical Center, New York
The number of pain specialists practicing in the United States, especially in rural communities, is woefully inadequate despite mounting evidence that untreated and undertreated chronic pain is the nation's leading public health problem.
According to a new study published in The Journal of Pain, just 5 percent of chronic pain patients ever see a pain specialist. Researchers from Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, reported that the 2,500 board-certified pain specialists in the US represent a mere four doctors per 100,000 patients with chronic pain. Further, they found the location of pain management practices largely corresponds with larger population centers.
The study also reported that 28 percent of pain practices focus on a single treatment modality, and just half provide multidisciplinary pain care. “The severe shortage of pain specialists in the US is further exaggerated by the substantially large proportion of pain physicians who do not provide the multimodality and interdisciplinary care optimal for many complex pain patients,” the authors concluded.
Study Probes Chronic Pain and Depression
Factors Associated with Depressed Mood in Chronic Pain Patients: The Role of Intrapersonal Coping Resources
Dolores T.Lacey Cannela, Marci Lobel, Peter Glass, Irina Lokshina and Jennifer Graham
Stony Brook University, New York
While chronic pain severity is closely linked with depression, pain patients who employ effective personal coping skills are better able to minimize interferences in normal life activities and avoid mood disorders, according to a new study in The Journal of Pain.
Researchers from Stony Brook University, New York, examined intrapersonal coping resources, such as self-esteem and optimism, to determine how they might benefit individuals with chronic pain or perhaps burden them. Interviews were conducted with 141 outpatients, from 22 to 70 years old, at a university-affiliated chronic pain center.
The authors reported chronic pain patients exhibiting greater coping resources experienced less severe pain, less interference in their daily lives and a lower incidence of depression than those with fewer coping resources. It also was reported that older patients were more optimistic and had higher self-esteem than younger pain patients.