Treating pain effectively is a crucial part of care. Pain is about more than an isolated physical sensation. It creates stress, and it can interfere with sleep, concentration, and a person's ability to perform and enjoy everyday tasks. It can even weaken the body's defenses against illness.
Treating pain is also a team effort. That's a message the medical community has taken to heart, improving on the ways in which physicians and nurses, as well as social workers, counselors and spiritual care providers, work together to relieve pain and manage other troubling symptoms. They draw on the special strengths of the various disciplines to find the right treatments for each individual in need. Practitioners of complementary and alternative therapies like acupuncture and hypnosis may also have a role to play on the team.
And so do you.
Getting good pain relief depends on people in pain communicating fully and openly about the experience of pain. Giving the most accurate picture you can of that experience – where it hurts, how bad it feels, whether or not it improves in certain situations or with certain treatments – is an essential step in getting the help you need.
The links below provide some of the essential information that can help people become partners in managing their pain. The links will take you to pages on this site as well as to printable brochures on other sites that the Michigan Cancer Pain Initiative has reviewed.
On this site:
- About Palliative care
- Patient Rights
- Talking to Doctors and Nurses about pain
- Medical Treatment
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine
On other sites:
- Pain Control (National Cancer Institute, PDF download)
- Managing Pain Begins with You (Missouri Pain Initiative, PDF download)
- Pain Resource Guide (American Pain Foundation, PDF download)
- Cancer Pain Can Be Relieved (Alliance of State Pain Initiatives, PDF download)
- Children's Cancer Pain Can Be Relieved (Alliance of State Pain Initiatives, PDF download)
- Cancer Pain Treatment Guidelines (National Comprehensive Cancer Network)