It's too much pressure. Stephens is one of 50 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain, a persistent state of pain that has lasted at least three months and has no medical cure or surgical remedy. But in the past decade, as aging baby boomers have begun to face debilitating conditions, chronic pain has begun to emerge as a topic of interest among doctors and researchers. New, stronger drugs are evolving and pressure has been placed on health care providers to treat pain more seriously. Some physicians, though, aren't too quick to join in the march toward a new era of pain management.
Chronic pain is a tricky area of medicine.
The origins of pain in fibromyalgia and pelvic pain, for example, are generally unknown. And when pain doesn't show up on an X-ray, it can be tough to discern the real patients from addicts seeking drugs, they say. Officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration say a new and potent painkiller called OxyContin is the No. 1 drug of choice among addicts. This month, the agency asked the manufacturer of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma L.P., to limit its distribution. But people living with chronic pain say big changes are needed, because doctors are ignoring their pleas for help.