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Chronic Pain Fact Sheet |
a
growing amount of media attention has been given to the
unspeakable suffering of millions of Americans with incurable
conditions causing severe chronic pain. In addition to articles
in the popular press and segments on network television, the
Internet is an increasingly rich source of information on this
topic. Yet the agonizing pain of millions of chronic pain
patients remains untreated. This is largely because the
nation's War on Drugs has created a climate of fear among
patients and health professionals alike — fear of using strong
opioid medications which are often the only way to relieve
severe pain when all other treatments have failed |
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Chronic pain makes
many sufferers contemplate suicide |
A
study by researchers in the United States found this increased
risk remained even when the possible effect of mental illness
was accounted for and the researchers say it provides further
evidence of the need to be aware of the heightened risk for
suicide in those with chronic pain. |
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Contracting HIV .
. . A Suicide Problem? |
The plain fact of it is that this society wants homosexual
people to die. It kills us directly, as it killed Harvey Milk
(who prophesied not only his own murder but the method his
murderer would use), or indirectly, in a variety of ways. One of
the most time-honoured and effective of those ways has been
suicide. |
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Current Research
on Chronic Pain and Suicide |
In
a recent Journal article, Penttinen reported on an unexpected
association between back pain and suicidal tendency in Finnish
farmers.' This study was designed to investigate the
relationship between back pain and fatal myocardial infarction.
However, subjects reporting back pain during the year before
study baseline had a significantly increased risk of committing
suicide during the first 10 years of follow-up, when compared
with subjects with no back pain symptoms. When adjusted for age,
this finding remained significant. Based on these results,
Penttinen called for more research to define the clinical
character of back trouble, depression, and suicidal tendency.'
The purpose of this letter is then to familiarize the readership
with the current research status of this area of investigation. |
Pdf 375 kb |
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HIV/AIDS and
challenges of euthanasia, suicide |
The emergency of HIV/AIDS in our society has caused and
continues to cause great havoc including the terrible loss of
people’s right to life. |
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HIV-positive Cambodian woman
commits suicide |
A
Cambodian woman committed suicide after learning she was
HIV-positive and more than 30 men who had slept with her may
also have contracted the virus, police said Friday. |
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Opioids
for Chronic Cancer and Non-Cancer Pain: A Survey of State
Medical Board Members |
The authors surveyed medical board members to determine their
views on the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic cancer
pain and also chronic non-malignant pain. Before presentation
and discussion of the survey results, the authors provide: 1) an
overview of the problem of cancer pain, 2) a review of the key
role of opioid therapy in the management of cancer pain, 3) a
brief analysis of controlled substances law in relation to the
use of opioids to treat intractable pain, and 4) a discussion of
the impediments that prevent optimal management of cancer pain
with opioid analgesics, such as fear of addiction |
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Pain, Disease and
Suicide |
Persistent pain is another factor in the medically ill patient
that can raise suicidal risk. This was demonstrated clearly by
Stenager, et al. (1994) who examined a sample of suicide
attempters admitted to a department of psychiatry. Each patient
underwent a structured interview examining a multitude of
factors that may have led up to the suicide attempt. The results
show 52% of the patients were shown to have a somatic disease
and 21% were taking analgesics daily for pain. |
Pdf 90 kb |
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Rational Suicide
and HIV Disease |
Suicidal inclinations among AIDS patients are extremely common
as the patients constantly reevaluate the quality of their
lives. One recent study indicates that people infected with HIV
may be up to 40 times more likely to consider suicide than
members of the general population, although other surveys have
reported levels of suicide risk among AIDS patients at similar
levels as those for the general public |
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Reporting on
Suicide: Suicide Contagion is Real |
.......between 1984 and 1987, journalists in Vienna covered the
deaths of individuals who jumped in front of trains in the
subway system. The coverage was extensive and dramatic. In 1987,
a campaign alerted reporters to the possible negative effects of
such reporting, and suggested alternate strategies for coverage.
In the first six months after the campaign began, subway
suicides and non-fatal attempts dropped by more than eighty
percent. The total number of suicides in Vienna declined as
well. |
Pdf 222 kb |
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Some Chronic-Pain
Patients At Increased Suicide Risk |
As
any chronic-pain patient knows, it's easy to feel helpless when
in pain, to be pessimistic about ever escaping it, and to find
it difficult to keep pain out of your mind—in short, to
“catastrophize” it. |
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Study: People With
Chronic Pain Four Times More Likely to Attempt Suicide |
The study, of nearly 5,700 U.S. adults, found that those who
reported chronic pain other than arthritis were four times more
likely to have attempted suicide than adults not suffering from
persistent pain. |
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THE MEDICAL
MANAGEMENT OF PAIN |
"Experience consistently shows that patients often want to die
because of undertreated pain. Yet with good medical care their
pain is almost always manageable, and they almost always regain
their desire to live. Pain relief typically can be achieved
without impairing mental ability..." |
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THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SUICIDE |
Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United
States. Based on the assumption that suicide is not a rational
choice, society has long sought to prevent or discourage the
practice. In fact, society has generally regarded a suicide
attempt as a plea for help or an indication of a need for
psychiatric. The debate about legalizing assisted suicide and
euthanasia has challenged these assumptions, suggesting that for
at least some individuals, society should shift from prevention
to toleration or assistance. |
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The Suicide
Paradigm |
A
paradigm determines what gets taught and studied, the methods,
and how the findings are interpreted. It defines the needs
addressed, who is served, and how the services are provided. A
paradigm supplies "all the answers" to researchers' and
practitioners' questions. A paradigm becomes self-sustaining. It
provides continuity and stability. Its tenets are defended and
change is resisted. It becomes more complex and encompassing,
but does not evolve. Paradigms only change through radical and
sudden shifts. These occur when new discoveries, knowledge, or
concepts arise which cannot be rejected or assimilated by the
old paradigm. The new paradigm supercedes the old paradigm. The
study of suicide involves a common paradigm. New findings are
laying the groundwork for a new paradigm. |
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Understanding
Chronic Pain |
Pain is a universal and yet intensely personal experience. It is
the invisible scourge that cannot be adequately explained to
those around us; it is the constant companion that accompanies
us in a thronging crowd or in the quietness of a cloistered
bedroom. As pain becomes prolonged and persistent, our ability
to cope with it seems to break down. We come to feel helpless,
lonely, anxious, depressed and even angry. We get frustrated
when others cannot understand our pain and we become annoyed
when they tell us that they empathize with us. How can I deal
with this pain? How do I make it stop? The poignant words of
patient Job of old come to mind, "Yet if I speak, my pain is not
relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away." (Book of Job
16:6) |
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