Largest Chronic Pain Patient Survey Is Still Looking For Your Opinion
What is believed to be the largest-ever patient survey on chronic pain is being kept open. Over 3,000 chronic pain patients and loved ones have filled it out in the last year.
“There’s nothing like it out there,” said Terri Lewis, Ph.D., who is the study author.
She told the National Pain Report this week that the survey has generated over 200,000 lines of comment data which she and her team are busy tabulating.
One thing she told us really stood out—that respondents have tried 262 different alternatives to treat their chronic pain.
If you have not yet filled out the survey, you can do so here.
You’ll note that this survey originally was designed to present data to the FDA for its Public Meeting for Patient-Focused Drug Development on Chronic Pain last summer. But Dr. Lewis has kept the survey active because of the vast information it’s generating.
She said that the data collected will be able to use in three basic ways.
- “What the survey results can be are a weapon for people to take to their doctors, to their fellow patients and to their state legislature.”
- “The data will also give clinicians the confidence to change their behaviors and not be cowed by the government.”
- “It should also be a driver in helping change and create uniform policy which ultimately will hold people accountable to do the right thing.”
Dr. Lewis points out that a big number of people who are responding would otherwise be in the prime of their working and economic lives were it not for injury and illness that they endure.
“They are very unhappy with the system they have to rely on. They are extraordinarily negatively impacted by shrinking footprint of healthcare and public policy,” she pointed out.
Many of the respondents have been dealing with their illnesses and injuries for many years and had achieved some degree of stability of care until the opioid wars destabilized their provider system.
If you have not yet added your voice to this—please do.
If you are not yet following us on Twitter, please do:
@NatPainReport
@edcoghlan
To follow Dr. Lewis, and to keep up on her on behalf of chronic pain patients, find her @tal7291
Filed under: General Problems
What’s sorta funny, in a way, is that heroin isn’t even as addictive as heroin as cracked down to be: there was a study of heroin use in GIs in Vietnam; while they were there, 34% regularly used heroin. By Kolodny’s claim, all of them should’ve been hopelessly addicted when they returned to the states. A year after returning to the states, 1% were still using heroin. (https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.64.12_Suppl.38)
Basically, nothing coming out of that schmuck’s mouth bears the faintest resemblance to the truth.
I applaud Dr. Terri Lewis for what she is trying to do. However, she needs to hear the recent Senate hearing in order to know where our main emphasis should be.
Congress STILL believes 2 major lies promoted by Andrew Kolodny when he testified several years ago. I will list the lies and the rebuttal.
#1) Kolodny: “ALL Opioids are little heroin pills that make addicts out of everyone.”
REBUTTAL: The Cochrane Report and other studies state that “Less than one half of 1 per cent of people with moderate to severe pain ever become addicted, period.”
#2) KOLODNY: “OPIOIDS are ineffective for treating chronic pain.”
REBUTTAL: .The study was flawed because it was based on back pain only.
Back pain is the most common complaint. It involves several types of pain (muscle, nerve and inflammatory pain). Pain is usually broken down into 2 types (nociceptive & neuropathy–nerve pain). Our brains have different opioid receptors (mu, NMDA,etc.) AND opioids don’t work on all of them. This is why they are ineffective for certain types of pain.
#3) UNLESS CONGRESS GETS GOVERNMENT (DEA, DOJ, CDC) OUT OF HEALTHCARE AND REMOVES THEIR AUTHORITY TO SUE DOCTORS AND PUT THEM IN PRISON—–AND REMOVES THEIR AUTHORITY TO TELL DRUG MANUFACTURERS HOW MUCH THEY CAN PRODUCE, NOTHING WILL CHANGE!!!
YOU CAN WRITE ALL THE BEST PRACTICES FOR PAIN MANAGEMENT AND TAKE SURVEYS TILL THE COWS COME HOME BUT UNLESS THE GOVERNMENT GETS OUT OF THE DOCTOR/PATIENT RELATIONSHIP, IT’S MEANINGLESS IN MY HUMBLE OPINION!