Sometimes people in pain are reluctant to seek relief because of misplaced ideas about the nature of pain and the use of medications to treat it. Here are a few of those myths, followed by corrective information:
MYTH: Serious illnesses like cancer cause severe pain that cannot be controlled or lessened.
Cancer and other serious diseases do not always cause pain. And when pain does result from illness, medications and other therapies are available to bring relief in the great majority of cases.
MYTH: Addiction is common in patients who take pain medications.
While it is true that patients who are prescribed opioids (narcotics) become physically dependent on the medication, this is not the same as addiction. Physical dependence is expected when opioids are used and is not a problem as long as the drug is tapered off slowly. The craving and compulsive use of a substance associated with addiction is very different, and it is not at all common when opioid medications are used as prescribed for the relief of pain. People who are addicted use substances to change their moods and the way they feel; when people use opioids to relieve pain, they get to feel more like themselves.
MYTH: Patients build up a tolerance to pain medications and this means they should not take those medications too early, but should hold off until pain becomes unbearable.
It does a patient little good to take pain medication only when the pain is at its worst. To the contrary, it has been shown that giving regular, round-the-clock doses is the best way to keep pain under control – before it becomes a serious problem. And when patients develop physical tolerance to opioids, that does not mean the drugs have stopped working; doses and frequency of use can be increased without difficulty, or else a patient can be switched to a different opioid. There is no such thing as a maximum dose of opioids for pain relief, so health professionals can safely increase the dosage until the pain has been dealt with.
MYTH: If the pain is relieved, doctors and nurses won't know what's going on with the underlying disease.
There are a number of tests and measurements that can be used to indicate the status and progression of a person's illness. There is no need to keep a patient in pain in order to monitor the disease.