Pain medicine should be mandatory for physicians

Pain medicine should become a compulsory subject for prospective doctors

15.03.2012

„In Germany, up to 18 million people suffer from chronic pain, such as back pain, which is often not or only insufficiently treated, due to the excessive demands of many doctors in this field a revision of the licensing order.

Too few pain medics in Germany
For the 13 to 18 million pain patients there are only 2,000 to 3,500 physicians in Germany who offer a pain consultation. There are also around 150 regional pain centers. Pain medics now sound the alarm. „We have failed to ensure the supply of pain patients sustainable and nationwide, "said the President of the German Society for Pain Therapy, Dr. Gerhard Mueller-sulfur, the German pain and palliative day in Frankfurt.

Patients who suffer from chronic pain often have a veritable odyssey before they enter a pain center. An average of eleven doctors have previously consulted patients. The onset of the disease is usually many years old. Müller-Sulfur explains: „Patients meet uncomprehending doctors because they have not been prepared for care.“

Pain medicine should be your own specialty
The pain medicine advocates for a mandatory inclusion of pain medicine in the licensing system. A corresponding draft of the Federal Ministry of Health is already available. In addition, the pain medicine must be declared its own specialty, the expert demands. The health insurance companies are required. Pain medicine must be represented in their service catalogs accordingly. After all, chronic pain had been included in the Morbi-RSA. This is a success. „The money is not yet available to doctors“, reports Müller-Schwefel. Now it is important that doctors accurately encode the diagnoses of pain patients. Then could be negotiated on a corresponding remuneration.

Close cooperation between different departments necessary
As Rolf-Detlef Treede, neurophysiologist at the Medical Faculty of Mannheim at the University of Heidelberg, explains, a close cooperation of doctors, psychologists and physiotherapists in pain therapy is absolutely necessary. Because physical and mental pain could not be considered detached from each other. For example, back pain often does not have a one-dimensional, x-ray-visible cause, said Justus Benrath, director of the Mannheim Pain Center, to the news agency „dpa“. However, before consulting a psychologist, many sufferers are scared off for fear of it, „to be deported to the psycho-corner“, explained Treede.

Naturopathy also offers various methods for relieving chronic pain. These include acupuncture, biofeedback, homeopathic procedures, magnetic field therapies, neural therapies or detoxification and deacidification therapies. In addition, special relaxation methods are used in the naturopathic treatment of chronic pain. (Ag)

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