NEW TEXTBOOK TEACHES PAIN MANAGEMENT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An estimated 50 million Americans suffer from
persistent pain, yet most medical students have no courses focused on
treating pain, according to the American Academy of Pain Medicine.
"Untreated pain, tragically, is an epidemic in the United States," Dr.
Louis Sullivan, former Health and Human Services secretary, said
Monday as he announced an initiative to promote education on pain
management at the country's medical schools.

The American Academy of Pain Medicine has developed a Web-based
textbook that will be available to medical students without charge
beginning September 2004. It covers the neurobiology of pain, patient
evaluation and common types of pain, such as cancer and pediatric
pain, and includes self-tests.

The project is financed by a grant from the Purdue Pharma Fund, a
branch of the drug company that makes the painkiller OxyContin.

Dr. Daniel Carr, director of the project and a professor of pain
research at Boston's New England Medical Center, said the textbook
focuses on medical and behavioral treatments for pain, because they
are backed by more research than alternative therapies such as
acupuncture.

Only 3 percent of medical schools require students to take a course on
pain management, according to a survey of 125 schools by the
Association of American Medical Colleges in 2000 and 2001.

Developed with the participation of the Association of American
Medical Colleges, the new textbook will be tested in he coming months
at the Morehouse School of Medicine, in Atlanta; the University of
Connecticut School of Medicine, in Farmington, Conn.; and the Texas
College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Fort Worth, Texas.

While millions of Americans suffer from pain in silence, the abuse of
prescription drugs is well documented. Nearly 3 million young people,
age 12 to 17, said they had used prescription drugs for nonmedical
reasons at least once, according to a January 2003 government report.
OxyContin, a brand name for the drug oxycodone, is among the
most-abused prescription medications.

Nevertheless, project director Carr said, "The burden of undertreated
pain dwarfs overtreated pain" in the overall society.