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Ed. Note: The following is a press
release from Blackwell Publishing.
September 6, 2006 -- A
recent study of patients receiving opioid (opiate) medications for chronic
pain, has confirmed that a number of warning signs may appear in the
medication pre-screening process for doctors with concerns over
medication-abuse by patients and the long-term effectiveness of the
treatment.
The survey was conducted by Robert J. Gatchel, Ph.D.,
ABPP at the University of Texas at Arlington, using the Pain Medication
Questionnaire (PMQ), heralded as a benchmark in patient-screening, in an
attempt to accurately identify which patients receiving opioid medication
for chronic-pain management would benefit from the drug and which would
potentially abuse it. Gatchel hypothesized that patients scoring high on the
PMQ test would demonstrate higher levels of physical impairment and
psychosocial distress as compared to low scoring patients prior to
treatment.
Gatchel's findings largely indicate that the hypothesis
was correct. Higher PMQ (H-PMQ) scores correlate with higher levels of
substance abuse, psychopathology and physical/life functioning problems
amongst patients, as confirmed by the study. Specifically, those scoring
within the H-PMQ range are found to be:
Additionally, 51.7% of divorced persons tested fell
within the H-PMQ group, as did 51.2% of those receiving disability payments.
This suggests that demographic similarities exist across all PMQ groups,
making the results easily generalized to the larger population of
chronic-pain patients.
A re-evaluation six months after treatment concluded
showed that those who completed the program experienced diminishing PMQ
scores over time compared to those who dropped out or were unsuccessfully
discharged. This represents the second stage in the development of a sound,
reliable screening tool for measuring the risk of opioid medication abuse.
The study has widespread implications for policy
makers, insurers and pain physicians. Opioid pain-treatment is a standard of
care for over 50 million people in the U.S. and accounts for $70 billion
annually in healthcare costs and lost productivity. The aim of the study is
to promote a more effective use of healthcare dollars and resources.
Robert J. Gatchel is the Chair of the Department of
Psychology, College of Science, at The University of Texas at Arlington, as
well as the Director of Clinical Research at The Eugene McDermott Center for
Pain Management, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management, at The
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He is also a
Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). Please
direct inquiries to Sue Stevens at:
sstevens@uta.edu
Pain Practice , the official journal of World Institute
of Pain, publishes international multidisciplinary articles on pain that
provide its readership with up-to-date knowledge of the research, evaluation
methods, and techniques of pain management. The present literature on pain
medicine is diverse and published in a variety of basic and clinical
specialty journals. For a practitioner to subscribe to all the venues needed
to cover the field of pain medicine would be impractical, if not impossible.
Likewise, the literature search can be cumbersome, costly, and entirely
unavailable in some areas. As a thorough, multidisciplinary journal, Pain
Practice is a convenient, cost-effective way to resolve these dilemmas.
Published on behalf of the World Institute of Pain. For more information on
membership, please visit
http://www.wipain.org/.
Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society
publisher, partnering with 665 academic and professional societies.
Blackwell publishes over 800 journals and, to date has published more than
6,000 books, across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional
subjects.
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