Chronic Pain and You
First I would like to discuss the treatment of chronic pain. Since the mid 1980's the World Health Organization's analgesic ladder has been the basis for chronic pain treatment in cancer patients. The analgesic ladder was developed by physicians who felt that this plan should control chronic pain as it went from mild to moderate to more severe pain. Researchers later found that nearly 90% of people got quick, good pain relief using these simple guidelines. These treatments need not to be prescribed by specialists, but are available to you from regular physicians and from regular pharmacies. If these don't work other more specialized treatments are available. Before I go on I should mention that even though these slides mentions cancer pain all of this information also pertains to non-cancer chronic pain.