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Pain The Basics of Pain

Putting an End to Chronic Pain

Summary & Participants

Although many people suffer in silence, you don't have to live with chronic pain.

Medically Reviewed On: July 21, 2009

Webcast Transcript

Nathan Goldstein, MD, Chronic Pain Expert: Chronic pain can affect anyone of any age group, whether it be younger folks or older adults. The issue with chronic pain in older adults is that it can often interfere with function more than it may in younger individuals.

ANNOUNCER: Living with chronic pain is far too common – 10% of Americans say they’ve lived with pain lasting a year or more

Nathan Goldstein, MD, Chronic Pain Expert: Chronic pain is a little different than sort of everyday aches and pains. Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts three months or more in duration that often is treated by medications in the opioid family, which are medications like morphine or hydromorphone, sometimes known as dilaudid, or oxycodone, codeine, medications like that. Chronic pain is not treated by the normal over-the-counter medications that we would normally give people.

ANNOUNCER: And, especially for older folks, the medications can be as worrisome as the pain itself.

Ida Mae Landrum, Chronic Pain Patient: I will not start taking pain pills. No, I wouldn’t think of it. It’s bad enough that I feel like I need an Ambien to go to sleep at night. I don’t also want to feel like I have to have a narcotic.

Nathan Goldstein, MD, Chronic Pain Expert: Older people are really concerned about addiction. And one of the things that we explain to people is that addiction happens no more commonly in older people with pain than It does in the normal population.

Ida Mae Landrum, Chronic Pain Patient: Chronic pain is just something you just – you’re not even totally aware of it, it’s just part of your life, especially at my age.

ANNOUNCER: But is chronic pain really a normal part of aging?

Nathan Goldstein, MD, Chronic Pain Expert: Pain, particularly chronic pain, is never normal, and never a normal part of aging, and we can always treat your pain. So there’s this assumption that I’m just going to suffer alone in silence, which we really discourage patients from doing, because pain can often be treated very effectively.

ANNOUNCER: So if you’re having trouble with persistent pain, don’t keep it to yourself.

Nathan Goldstein, MD, Chronic Pain Expert: Treating pain can have a significant improvement in patients’ quality of life, so we really encourage them to come forward and have a frank discussion with their doctors.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for joining us on today’s Once Daily!