Melissa Kaplan's
Chronic Neuroimmune Diseases
Information on CFS, FM, MCS, Lyme Disease, Thyroid, and more...
Last updated January 1, 2014

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Charting Pain
Chronic Unremitting Pain
Fibromyalgia Pain Isn't All In Patient's Heads, New Brain Study Finds
Gender Differences in Pain, Pain Perception, and Treatment
The Management of Post-Operative Pain
Pain Relief in the Elderly
New Ideas in Pain Treatment
Pitching Relief

Pediatric Pain and Pain Assessment
The Children's Pain Assessment Project
Detailed Pediatric Pain Assessment Tool
Pain in Neonates, Children, and Adolescents
Pain Relief in Children
Pain Undertreated in Toddlers
Pediatric Pain Research Lab
Post-Operative Pain Assessment in Neonates and Infants
Small Patients, Big Pain

Drug Policy Resources
Pain & Policy Study Group
Schaffer Library of Drug Policy - Note: this site periodically unavalable; please bookmark and keep trying.
CA Senate Hearing on Gender Bias and Chronic Pain (Feb 2004)

Statements by the Medical Board of California
Guidelines for Prescribing Controlled Substances for Intractable Pain
Prescribing Controlled Substances for Pain

Chronic Unremitting Pain

"There is no justification fo saying that opioids don't work and should not be given to FMS patients. That is not evidence based medicine, it is peer-pressure based medicine!" - Robert Bennett MD, FMS researcher, Oregon Health Services University, Portland OR

Chronic, unremitting pain not related to cancer is a facet - a serious, debilitating and costly facet - of many diseases and disorders. It is an unfortunate fact that numerous fallacious stereotypes (such as "too much pain medication always causes addiction") and cultural socializations (fact: women, children, and people of color are routinely prescribed less pain medication than white adult males; "only sissies complain about pain") have conspired to keep people suffering from chronic severe pain from getting the medication they need.

Between the people who have no clue as to how bad severe pain can be, to those doctors who believe pain is to be "managed" instead of suppressed despite the fact that such "management" does not enable the patient a modicum of functionality without screaming agony, to those who blame the victim for not getting better, the fact is that we give more consideration to the humane and painless euthanizing of animals and state executions of criminals than we do to helping, truly helping, people whose lives have been devastated by unrelieved pain. Hence the creation of this page, a source of information, resources, articles and links to informative sites.

Chronic Pain Resources
This is the beginning of a collection of pain resources and information on and off the net. Please explore the sites linked in this collection to get to the growing body of work appearing on the web on this subject.

If your doctor's not breaking the law, why is he so paranoid about prescribing appropriate pain medications for you?
Who, me? Caustic? Naw. Just tired and frustrated and angered at seeing so many people whose lives are destroyed by pain while their doctors are more worried about extra paper work. Physicians need to start dealing with their patient's quality of life, not denying 82-year-old cancer patients opioids for (unfounded) fear of addiction, or enough Percocet so that patients can get up and bathe, dress and prepare a few meals for themselves or, even, their families. Worse are those who just don't want to be bothered by the paperwork or calls from the pharmacies. Perhaps these doctors should go into pathology or other specialties where they aren't going to have to waste time on the human side of medicine...

When Family Disapprove of Intractable Pain Treatment
Some suggestions from the Intractable Pain Association.

The Tylenol Toxicity Issue
When the drugs that help can cause liver damage, some docs just don't get it that some people would rather have a better quality of life, albeit a shorter life, than a healthy liver. (Anyone have a clue as to why they think it should be their decision, not yours?) Here's some information that may be helpful in controlling your own liver and the impact of certain drugs on it.

California Pain Laws
Here is the full text of the Pain Patient's Bill of Rights and the Intractable Pain Laws.

New State Law Changes Requirements for Triplicate Prescription Drug Forms

New Ideas in Pain Treatment
Severe pain relief may be possible with a common anesthetic drug

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