Pain+Relief+Medication+-+Are+We+Afraid+To+Feel?

Pain Relief Medication – Are We Afraid Not To Feel? Name: Daniel Barron Student Number: n7523599 Tutor: Katie Page Tutorial: Friday 8-9am B203a Word Count: 1705

[] My artefact that I have used for an example in this assignment is the better health channel, a website hosted by the Victorian Government. The Victorian Government hosts this website to attempt to inform the public on how certain health issues can affect people in the general public. In particular, I have focused on the pain killing drugs section of the website. This section of the website teaches members of the general public about pain killing medications, what they do, how they work, and the risks in taking them. The public health issue which this artefact focuses on is a general lack of knowledge throughout the Australian public, in relation to pain medication. It has been identified that members of the public do not always feel comfortable using pain medication, due to fear of addiction or cultural beliefs (Warren Ferguson, 2011). The importance of the doctor patient relationship, according to Ferguson, can be crucial in these situations (Warren Ferguson, 2011). This is agreed with by other peer-reviewed sources which associate such issues involving pain medication with a poor doctor-patient relationship (Egnew, 2011). Over the past ten years in Australia, there have been several examinations into the common public fear of using pain medication. To attempt to show how severe an issue this can be, I will be examining this research, and statistics on the issue. Lance McCracken identifies pain killing medication as being the post common method used by doctors and health professionals in dealing with chronic pain (McCracken, 2006).McCracken identifies several factors as being the direct cause for concern in patients when it comes to pain medication. These factors are the number of analgesic medication on the market, the range of medication classes, potential psychoactive properties, the possibility of medical interactions, and general concern about frequently heard about stories of drug abuse (McCracken, 2006). Perhaps the most common of these, as McCraken claims in his journal, is stories of prescription drug abuse (McCracken, 2006). Statistics of such stories are identified by researchers such as David Fishbain. Fishbain claims that 14% of the Australian population has admitted to being addicted to some form of prescription pain medication at some point in their life (Fishbain, 2008). When statistics like these reach the public through modern-day media, there is no doubt that they cause concern with people, in relation to taking pain medication. The reality of pain medication abuse is thought by researchers such as Patrick J Lustman, to be much more attributable to the common misconception that drug abuse is not possible in the case of prescription medications (Lustman, 2011). These ideas held by researchers in Australian society, however, are not limited to Australia. In fact, these ideas appear on a global scale, as can be shown by the anti-pain relief medication abuse campaign currently taking place in America. America has several websites such as the aforementioned Australian website on pain medication. One example of these would be [|www.scholastic.com/headsup]. The website is run by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and uses the motto; “Just because a doctor prescribes them, doesn’t mean they are safe to abuse’. Fishbain’s take on websites such as this, are that they can often instil an irrational fear of using pain medication in patients (Fishbain, 2008). Lustman agrees, that anti-abuse of pain medication campaigns can often lead to an irrational fear or dislike of pain medication, as patients feel that they do more harm then good in our society (Lustman, 2011). When examining pain medication in society, most researchers tend to focus on the lack of balance between helping people avoid pain medication abuse, as opposed to making people scared of pain medication. The value of available sources in our society which prevent pain medication abuse is put into question, when they often cause fear in people, who then as patients are less willing to use pain relief medication when they really need it (McCracken, 2006). Several articles examine and prove that pain medication is nothing but beneficial to patients, and these articles tend to come from the cultural perspective of third world countries. Doctor Jack Jagwe is quoted by the World Health Organisation’s drug journal as saying that pain relief medication has made a dramatic difference to the lives of people in his country suffering from pain (WHO, 2007). The WHO continues to state that 60 million people a year in third world countries require pain medication to help them get through chronic pain which they may be suffering (WHO, 2007). The most interesting theories in drawing comparisons between third world pain relief medication shortages, and pain relief medication abuse in western countries such as Australia, come from scholars such as Carrie Dodrill. Dodrill argues that the over-indulgence of people in western nations compared to people in third world nations can cause them to be afraid of medications which are easily accessible to them, while people in third world countries have no access to them but desperately need them (Dodrill, 2011). Dodrill states that having these medications so easily available can often be the reason we are so afraid of them (Dodrill, 2011). Looking at the beginning of this section of my essay, you will see that a similar standpoint was mentioned by McCracken, in his examination of people’s fear in using pain relief medication (McCracken, 2006). The issue with pain medication in western nations such as Australia is thus that we have such an abundance of medication, that people are afraid to use it. It also comes from the fact that people are complacent in using these medications, and do not give accurate heed to using pain medications, or have rational concern about using them too often, as an easy escape from their pain. When these stories reach the public, people become afraid of having similar addictions to pain relief medications form. As earlier mentioned in this assignment, different countries around the world are affected differently by pain medication abuse. Third world countries tend to be in desperate need of these medications, while western nations tend to use them complacently. Fear of addiction can be easily attributed to a prior lack of knowledge about the risks of using pain relief medication, which over time has converted to a fear of addiction, due to this prior lack of knowledge. Modern day advertising to attempt to educate on the risks of taking pain medication, according to sources seems to only further the public’s fear of using pain medication (Lustman, 2011). The reality of the problem is that in our society, as mentioned by McCracken, we have such an abundance and variety of pain medication, that people are only becoming more scared of using it, as opposed to accepting its circumstantial necessity (McCracken, 2006). Finset, in his article on the doctor-patient relationship, states that it is of crucial importance that a doctor always explains things and communicates with the patient in a way that the patient will understand (Finset, 2011). Having identified a lack of knowledge as being one of the greatest aspects of pain relief medication, Finset’s point is highly relevant to this topic, in that doctors need to be education patients constantly on the realities of using pain medication. While as earlier mentioned approaches aren’t always the most effective way to teach people the risks of using pain medication (such as the US Department of Health and Human Services campaigning website, talking about the risks of pain medication) they are affective. Their weaknesses are shown by their under-estimating the intelligence of a patient from a non-medical career background (Fishbain, 2008). In assuming that because the general public is often not well informed on medical terminology and concepts they will not understand a detailed explanation of the workings of pain medications, websites such as the aforementioned [|www.scholastic.com/headsup] often cause more harm then good (Fishbain, 2008). By attempting to scare people into not abusing pain relief medication, they can quite often scare people into not using them at all, which can be detrimental to their health (Fishbain, 2008). While earlier I mentioned statistics to show that 14% of the population has been addicted to pain relief medication throughout their life (Fishbain, 2008), I hadn’t yet mentioned that in Australia, according to the PMAQ, more patients than not who were surveyed showed they were concerned about using pain-relief medication because they weren’t sure how it worked, or thought they may become addicted (McCracken, 2006). In reality, to avoid irrational fear of using pain relief medication in Australia, we need to educate people on how it works, and accept that they will be able to understand a more detailed explanation of how these medications work, as opposed to attempting to instil fear in them. “The greatest weakness in our attempts to educate our society on the correct use of pain medication is in not attempting to educate in appropriate use, though trying to scare into appropriate use of pain medication.” (Fishbain, 2008, p. 84) To me, the artefact which I chose to use for this assignment was highly relevant, because all the research shows that pain medication education in our society is inadequate and ineffective. In examining the fact our society is not efficiently informed on the pros and cons of pain medication, it is clear that we need to do a better job of educating the general public. I chose my artefact, because it is a website in the Australian community which actually teaches people about the medications, and tells them what they will do and how they will work. I believe that by reading a website like this, most Australian people would be more willing to use pain relief medication, as opposed to being afraid of using it. This artefact is crucial in our society, if we hope to turn things around in the fight against pain medication abuse, and fear of using pain medication. By having websites like these, we are actually education our society on the importance of pain relief medication, as opposed to attempting to scare them into not abusing it. We are finding the middle ground necessary to fix this health issue in our society. Daniel Barron
 * 1) **Artefact Presentation**
 * 1) **Public Health Issue**
 * 1) **Literature Review**
 * 1) **Cultural and Social Analysis**
 * 1) **Analysis of the Artefact**

=Bibliography= Dodrill, C. (2011). Prescription Pain Medication Dependance. //American Journal of Psychology//, 466-471. Egnew, T. (2011). Role Modelling the Doctor Patient Relationship. //Family Medicine//, 99. Finset, A. (2011). Mandates of Trust in the Doctor-Patient Relationship. //Quality of Health//, 1182-1190. Fishbain, D. (2008). Drug abuse, dependence and addiction. //Clinical Pain Journal//, 77-85. Lustman, P. (2011). Preventing Pain Medication Dependence. //Australian Journal of Psychology//, 1118-1124. McCracken, L. (2006). Concerns about Medication and Medication Use in Chronic Pain. //The Journal of Pain//, 726-734. Warren Ferguson, L. C. (2011). Culture, Language and the Doctor Patient Relationship. //Modern Culture and Physician-Patient Communication//, 353-361. WHO. (2007). Access to Medicines. //World Health Organisaiton Drug Information//, 16-19.