Management of chronic pain

Chronic pain is a major personal, family, and community disaster. The sufferer usually has difficulties in every aspect of life. The key to successful treatment lies in a comprehensive and accurate assessment that must include family, marital, legal, behavioural, mental, and organic considerations. With comprehensive assessment, a logical plan of treatment can be constructed. Non-compliance, substance abuse, doctor shopping and secondary gain, as well as complex psychodynamics, make management of such pain difficult and frustrating. The patients are frequently playing "games" in which they control the rules, and which the physician can never win. Success rates are poor even in specialized centres, and many patients are ultimately injured by inappropriate investigation or treatment. Physicians who have become over-involved with such patients may also be injured by the process, to the detriment of their general care of other patients and themselves.