The Pain Centre

Chronic Pain as a disease in its own right...End suffering now. Experts in medicine are agreed on one fact – Chronic pain is a disease in its own right , millions of people suffer from it but less than 2% end up seeing a pain specialist – simply because patients and health care companies believe there is no treatment and so quietly suffer. In 2009: World Health Organisation declared that they believe that Chronic Pain is a disease in its own right. In Europe in the last 5 years there has been a big push for recognition of pain as a disease in its own right and hence all the treatments i.e. physical therapy, medication optimisation , minimally invasive surgery should be offered and indeed supported as it is not acceptable for people to suffer significant pain in the 21st century. The first step is educating both public and allied health professionals. Knowledge is power. Many patients look for a cure or an exact cause for their chronic pain; this is as futile as looking for a cause for osteoarthritis, hypertension or diabetes. It is a disease of long term condition and impacts on lifestyle and function. Managing better pain relief, after appropriate assessment and investigations to rule out underlying sinister pathology, is a reality with newer drugs, short term targeted injections with local anaesthetic and steroids and neuromodulation (procedures to alter the perception and sensation of pain).