CHENNAI: Advanced countries treat pain as a speciality, while India has only a few specialised clinics. Most people are unaware of their existence and continue to suffer in silence. Eighty-five per cent of people who walk into a doctor's clinic complain of pain. But not much importance is given to pain management, lament pain specialists. Pain should be considered a disease and treated to ensure quality life to people, they say.

"For instance, someone may have a backache; scans and X-rays may not show up anything. But the person will continue to suffer. Pain specialists will be able to diagnose it better. [In India] we do not have much practice [in treating pain]," said Kilpauk Medical College chief anaesthetist Azhar Hussein.

The standard procedure, according to him, should be to refer such a patient to pain management clinics. In the United States, this is a recognised speciality.

Post-operative pain

Anaesthetists deal with post-operative pain. "Surgeons and anaesthetists should discuss pain control. After operation, a patient becomes independent when he is allowed to control the amount of pain killers he needs," said N. Rajamanickam, who practises in a pain clinic in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Trained in surgery at the Madras Medical College, Dr. Rajamanickam is currently in Chennai exploring avenues for a tie-up with specialists in the city to set up advanced pain management clinics.

Temporary pain, such as those suffered after a surgery, can be controlled by increasing the dosage of painkillers. Equipment to deliver a minimal dose of painkillers was available but are expensive. Fifty per cent of surgical procedures in the Government General Hospital were done under regional anaesthesia, he said.

For people who suffer from post-operation pain when the effect of anaesthesia wears off, advanced pain management techniques would help.

Patient controlled analgesia, which controls dosage and time of administering painkillers without overdose, reduces the burden of nurse/attendant help, experts note.

Specialised private pain clinics, however, have access to the equipment.

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