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Pain poorly managed may present as a debilitating burden. It interferes with the patient’s quality of life and in the standard activities of daily living. In addition to the physical discomfort, there often exists adverse emotional consequences.
Even the fear of pain may lead to suicidal ideation. In a survey of 204 chronic pain sufferers, half of the patients reported that they had considered suicide due to feelings of hopelessness associated with their pain. In 496 interviews of the public regarding cancer pain, more than two-third of them reported that they would consider suicide if pain became intolerable.
Financial costs of under-managed pain is huge in total if calculate the both direct and indirect costs.. direct costs include expenses for medications, hospitalization, visit to health care professionals etc.. Indirect costs include expenses for transportation, physical therapy, buying OTC drugs and educational materials (books, videotapes), nursing care etc. So paying attention to cost benefit should be kept in mind during planning of management.
Better acute pain management can contribute greatly to improve overall pain control and less utilization of health care support attention. In all cases of pain management, physicians and other prescribers endeavor to provide maximum analgesia with as few adverse effects as possible.
In some cases, poor pain management results from poor clinician-patient communication. So talking enough to the patient and assessing pain in various scales after clinical examination are necessary. It is of much help to take a previous history of patient’s pain management at home if any. It is important to remind that poor pain management destroys patient’s trust over their health care provider.
Complete analgesia may not be achievable for patients experiencing chronic pain; for such cases, acceptable maximizing pain relief for the patient while improving or maintaining physical activity or function should be the main aim of treatment.
A good idea: Pain management is most effective when it engages patients in self-management techniques. So also discussing about patient’s opinion to manage the pain may be helpful.