NAM Opioid Collaborative 5.21 Virtual Symposium - Session 3

Helen Burstin, CEO, Council of Medical Specialty Societies; Roger Chou, Professor in the Departments of Medicine, and Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University; Robert (“Chuck) Rich, Jr., Medical Director, Community Care of the Lower Cape Fear, Wilmington, NC; Christina Mikosz, Medical Officer, Division of Overdose Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Daniel Knecht, Vice President, Health Strategy and Innovation, CVS Health; and Penney Cowan, Founder and CEO, American Chronic Pain Association, present on Person-Centered, Evidence-Based Pain Management at the NAM Opioid Collaborative May 2020 Virtual Symposium.

[lelenapeacock]

Look, you don't understand what you are saying about chronic or intractable pain. The chronicity of intractable pain means that some patients do need relief. Don't make me suffer spells of tachycardia until I die an early death because you didn't help me relieve some of the daily agony I live with. These discussions tend to be extremely reductive & simplistic. That's not helpful at all when treating patients like me.

Maybe it's time the patient teach the physicians what it's like in their day to day. None of us expect ZERO PAIN. That's a myth.

Please. Listen to patients. (Please read this in a friendly tone of voice. Thank you.)