Pain

Click Date to read brief description	Click Short Title to read column
07/27/04	Expensive Arthritis Pills Have Not Lived Up to the Hype
11/18/03	The Science of Pain (This is the second of a two part column on pain)
11/04/03	The Politics of Pain (This is the first of a two part column on pain)
03/22/99	Chronic pain goes untreated as some doctors don't believe patients
04/06/98	Women do have more pain, but they cope
09/08/97	Migraine - New drugs offer the best hope yet
09/09/96	Follow the `rule of 3's' on back pain
07/08/96	Painkillers often take toll on stomach
04/08/96	A battle plan for surviving the repetitive strain wars

Seduced by hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising, Americans spend $6 billion a year for the arthritis pain-killers Vioxx and Celebrex, said to be as good as over-the-counter drugs -- and easier on the stomach. But the two have not lived up to their hype, according to published research and interviews with arthritis doctors and drug specialists. Vioxx, which may be better for the stomach, appears to have a far worse side effect than over-the-counter drugs: an increased risk of heart attacks

11/18/03 - The Science of Pain (his is the second of a two part column on pain)

Dr. Darlyne Johnson, 46, an obstetrician-gynecologist at South Shore Hospital in S. Weymouth, MA. is no stranger to pain – and not just the pain of other women having babies. Over the years, Johnson has had surgery, and each time, wound up with such terrible nausea and vomiting from painkillers that she had to stay in the hospital overnight. Not surprisingly, when she found out three years ago that she needed hernia surgery, she balked. “I knew what was going to happen – I’d get sick.”

11/04/03 The Politics of Pain This is the first of a two part column on pain.

America is seriously schizophrenic about controlling chronic pain, which afflicts more than 50 million people and costs the country $100 billion a year. So on the one hand, we grossly under-treat it: Management of chronic pain and the pain of dying patients is arguably the most egregiously neglected field of medicine. On the other hand, as a society, we have become obsessed with the war on drugs.

James Murphy is only 26, but some days, he can hardly get out of bed. Three years ago, Murphy, a North Easton man who used to fix power tools for a living, damaged a disc in his back lifting a steel workbench. The injury allowed the jelly-like material that cushions vertebrae to ooze out and press on a nerve. Pain raged through his lower back and shot down his right leg.

Jean Cummings, a 38-year-old urban policy analyst from Cambridge, lives in almost constant pain. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis 10 years ago, she's had two hip replacements and will have both knees replaced in June, right after her wedding.

It was June, 1996 and Dr. Michael Cutrer, head of the headache unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, was hard at work as usual in his sixth floor lab in Charlestown. Suddenly, he'd look at somebody ``and part of the face wouldn't be there, just a shimmering blind spot'' that grew ``until half of the vision in both eyes was sparkling and shimmering,'' he recalls.

Annie Baehr, who works at the Berklee College of Music, figures she has struggled with back pain for nearly 40 of her 55 years. For a while, the Winchester woman says, she trudged to orthopedic specialists, but ``nobody gave me any relief.'' Last year, when the back pain evolved into daily headaches, she turned to prescription painkillers, but they didn't help either. The pills ``covered up the pain,'' she says, but made things worse when she stopped.

Gabriel Belt, 66, a retired Brookline accountant, figured he was doing the smart thing by taking an aspirin every other day. Both his father and brother had died of cardiovascular problems in their sixties and he knew aspirin could reduce his own risk. He also figured that if he took the aspirin only every other day and took a type that was enteric-coated to protect his stomach, he should have no problems.

Jeff Del Papa's hands and forearms gave out five years ago, after 15 years of pounding keyboards as a computer programmer for a company in Wilmington. Today, Del Papa, a 38-year-old Watertown man who once played medieval musical instruments and opened jars with a flick of the wrist, is back working as a programmer, only now he has to dictate every thought into a voice-activated computer.