ISSP draws up guidelines for pain management

While the protocol for back pain management has already been released by the society,the knee pain guidelines are slated to be released in May and neck pain guidelines in October.

A Continued Medical Education Programme for doctors regarding the guidelines for back pain management was organised in Lucknow today in collaboration with the state chapter of the Indian Medical Association.

Experts believe that pain management usually takes a backseat in patient care. While doctors do all they can to cure an ailment,the pain caused by the ailment is not addressed immediately.

Dr P N Jain,president of ISSP and professor of anesthesiology at Tata Memorial Centre,Mumbai,said: “While pain is the oldest symptom,it is quite a recent branch of research of medical science. Though all disease management is taught to medical students,pain management is still not a part of their curriculum. Thus,an initiative was taken to prepare protocols for diagnosis as well as treatment of pain for doctors,so that they can focus on pain along with the disease. ISSP has approved these guidelines.”

He added,“We did a study a few years ago,wherein it was found that 22 per cent of the population suffers from back pain. However,nine of 10 back pain patients can be cured simply by resting that body part.” However,he said,such treatment is not adopted by many medical practitioners in India. As with spontaneous and chronic pain,the general line of treatment is to use pain killers.

“About 50 per cent of pain cases are known to have their origin in stress and depression and need a psychologist for treatment,” said Jain. “But if a patient goes to one specialist and the specialist realises it is not his field of expertise,neither the patient nor the doctor knows where to refer the patient next. With the guidelines,the standard practice of identification,diagnosis as well as line of treatment and precautions will be given to the doctors.”

There are international protocols for pain management,but no such protocol has existed in India. The international guidelines cannot be applied here because they adopt hi-tech methods to manage such cases,while there are infrastructure constraints in India.