Pain is the body's early warning system. Like a smoke detector that won't stop shrieking, it alerts you that something is wrong.
Without pain you might do yourself serious damage before you realized it.
Burns, cuts, blisters, sprains, breaks and bellyaches are just a few of the causes of pain that get your attention and motivate you to take action. That's certainly a benefit. But there is a downside, especially if the pain doesn't go away.
Unrelenting pain can take over a person's life, making it hard to think, work or carry on. It can delay recovery from surgery and promote complications. Animal studies show that severe pain can impair the immune system and may allow the spread of cancer.
Many factors interfere with adequate pain management. Some health care workers feel that patients who complain about their pain are weak and lacking in character. Others worry that patients will become addicted to pain medication. Bureaucratic regulations can make it more difficult to deliver the right medicine at the right time.
One reader of this column related his experience with chronic pain:
"Several years ago I injured my lower back. Now arthritis has settled into the old injury as well.
"For years I bounced around from doctor to doctor. I've tried traction, steroid shots, physical therapy and every anti-inflammatory medication there is, but I could not get any relief. The anti-inflammatory medications really kill my stomach, even with food. I just can't take the stuff.
"One doctor told me she had other patients with the same complaint. She reviewed my charts, saw what I had been through, and tried some pain medications. Darvocet didn't work, but Tylenol No. 3 did, for a while. Then it lost its effect. When she prescribed Vicodin, I found instant relief and was pain free for more than two years.
"Unfortunately, she has moved her practice out of state, and other doctors will not prescribe this drug. They say take anti-inflammatory medicines or go elsewhere. I wish they would review my charts and see that I have already tried all the anti-inflammatory drugs and that they don't work.
"I am in pain -- unable to perform at work, unable to sleep, afraid for my family and getting no relief. We are one paycheck away from welfare.
"I know Vicodin is habit-forming, but so is my hurting back. For two years I needed only one capsule in the morning and one in the evening, never any more, and I was working and supporting my family. But now I can hardly function. My back is killing me.
"I am very depressed because I can't get a doctor to prescribe the medicine that works, and I can't continue this way for the rest of my life."
Patients deserve better. Undertreatment of pain is a far more serious problem than most people realize.
There is no excuse for cancer patients to suffer during their final days. Addiction is not an issue.
Nor should chronic pain patients have to struggle as our reader has. Many experts in pain control now believe that narcotics are rarely addicting when given appropriately for severe pain.
Joe Graedon is a pharmacologist. Dr. Teresa Graedon is a medical anthropologist and nutrition expert.