Painful Problem: Why Kids Face Chronic Pain | LiveScience

This study shines a light on how poorly understood and mismanaged recurrent and chronic pain syndromes are." However, Walco also said he believes the number of pain patients reported in the new study is "potentially artificially inflated" due to the diagnostic codes used to identify pain patients. Those codes, Walco said, "leaned in the direction of psychological issues." The multiple diagnostic procedures and readmissions cited in the study underscore the need to do better when it comes to dealing with pain in youngsters, Walco said. Instead of treating chronic pain as an acute problem, physicians need to focus on rehabilitation, he explained. And "rather than continuing to see pain as a symptom of another illness, parents need to recognize pain is the illness, and seek out a pain expert for treatment," Walco said. The study appears today (July 1) in the journal Pediatrics. http://www.livescience.com/37868-chronic-pain-children-teens.html
Source: Psychology of Pain - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs