Healthcare Professionals' Perspective

The process of intractable pain relief begins with mild analgesics, such as acetaminophen, aspirin, or salicylates, and gradually proceeds to more potent analgesics, including opioids, as pain persists. Most intractable pain patients who require opioids for pain relief receive inadequate pain treatment because clinicians following the Old Paradigm:

• fear addicting their patients^1-5
• lack the knowledge of opioid pharmacological effects^1,3,4-6
• fear state medical board/Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation^2,3,7-10

For safe, effective pain management for all intractable pain patients, these three major thought patterns of the Old Paradigm need to metamorphose into the New Paradigm. This New Paradigm in pain management:

• supports opioid pain treatment without threat of addiction
• educates clinicians on the pharmacological effects of opioids
• enlightens state medical boards and the DEA on the proven advantages opioids have in managing pain

Healthcare professionals' transition into the new paradigm of pain management