User:Bdlogan90/Pain management

Self-management[edit]
Self-management of chronic pain has been described as the individual's ability to manage various aspects of their chronic pain. Self-management can include building self-efficacy, monitoring one's own symptoms, goal setting and action planning. It also includes patient-physician shared decision-making, among others. The benefits of self-management vary depending on self-management techniques used. They only have marginal benefits in management of chronic musculoskeletal pain. '''Some research has shown that self- management of pain can come in different approaches. Those approaches can range from different therapies such as yoga, acupuncture,exercise and other relaxation techniques. Patients could also take a more natural approach by taking different minerals, vitamins or herbs. However, research has shown there is a difference between rural patients and non-rural patients having more access to different self-management approaches. Physicians in these areas may be readily prescribing more pain medication in these rural cities due to being less experienced with pain management. simply put it is sometimes easier for rural patients to get a prescription that insurance pays for instead of natural approaches that cost more money than they can afford to spend on their pain management. Self-management may be a more expensive alternative. '''

Undertreatment of pain is the absence of pain management therapy for a person in pain when treatment is indicated.

Consensus in evidence-based medicine and the recommendations of medical specialty organizations establish guidelines to determine the treatment for pain which health care providers ought to offer. For various social reasons, persons in pain may not seek or may not be able to access treatment for their pain. Health care providers may not provide the treatment which authorities recommend. '''Some studies about gender biases have concluded that female pain recipients are often over looked when it comes to the perception of their pain. Whether they appeared to be in high levels of pain didn't make a difference for their observers. The women participants in the studies were still perceived to be in less pain than they actually were. Men participants on the other hand were offered pain relief while their self reporting indicated that their pain levels didnt necessarily warrant treatment. Biases exist when it comes to gender. Prescribers have been seen over and under prescribing treatment to individuals based on them being male or female . There are other prevalent reasons that undertreatment of pain occurs. Gender is a factor as well as race. When it comes to prescribers treating patients racial disparities has become a real factor. Research has shown that non-white individuals pain perception has affected their pain treatment. The African-American community has been shown to suffer significantly when it comes to trusting the medical community to treat them. Oftentimes medication although available to be prescribed is dispensed in less quantities due to their pain being perceived on a smaller scale. The black community could be undermined by physicians thinking they are not in as much pain as they are reporting. Another occurrence may be physicians simply making the choice not to treat the patient accordingly in spite of the self-reported pain level. Racial disparity is definitely a real issue in the world of pain management.'''