Is There Hope for Chronic Pain Patients?

Abstract

Many websites are dedicated to educating the public about chronic pain and its management. The majority of these websites say there is no cure for chronic pain, but encourage patients to try exercise, diet, stress reduction and other techniques to decrease the severity of chronic pain. Patients are also taught to use oral or injected drugs to treat their chronic pain. This can be dangerous and leads to adverse events and death in some patients. The majority of these websites teach patients that chronic pain comes from the brain and brain stem. This teaching is incorrect, since chronic pain is generated in the skin and can best be treated and cured with topical medicines.