Chronic pain affects one in five people
And High Impact Chronic Pain affects around 7% of the population. High Impact Chronic Pain is pain that occurs daily and is severe enough to be disabiling.
Who we are
We are a patient-centred and patient led organisation uniting to advocate and educate around the prescribing of opioids for severe chronic pain. In recent years opioid pain medications have been demonised based on poor-quality studies and oft-repeated myths.
Find a Pain Management service
Pain Management services are in high demand. In the public system, waiting periods are long, sometimes many years, and even private practitioners have long waiting lists. We are building a directory to help you find an appropriate practitioner near you.
What does the science say?
There are many myths around opioids, the science tells us that the addiction rate for chronic pain patients is low, opioid-induced hyperalgesia is a rare phenomenon IF it exists at all, and opioids do provide pain relief and improve quality of life.
What does Chronic Pain look like?
Chronic pain can happen to anyone. It can be caused by a variety of things, including degenerative diseases, nerve damage, inflammation, pain sensitisation syndromes, accidents or injuries, not all chronic pain is the same .
Because each pain patient is unique and individual, pain management and treatment must be individualised. The gold standard is multidisciplinary pain treatment i.e. multiple interventions by different specialists and therapies. For example, to treat spinal stenosis, you may see a physiotherapist, an exercise physiologist, a spinal or neurosurgeon, and a pain management specialist. You might also seek the help of a dietician if weight loss is indicated, or a psychologist to help you learn coping skills. You may consult any or all of these specialists, or any combination.
Pain is a bio-psycho-social experience, and each person’s pain is a combination of factors. Therefore, each person will need a unique an dpersonalised treatment plan, which may or may not include pain medications.
Opioids are NOT appropriate for everyone, but it is our position that they are a valuable therapy, essential for some, and they should be available where appropriate, in high impact chronic pain.
Supporting people living with chronic pain
People living with chronic pain often feel misunderstood and disbelieved. Through education and advocacy we aim to provide support to the chronic pain community. Our “Resources” section contains information about chronic pain, potential treatments, and information on many common pain conditions. We also have resources on the opioid misinformation that has been used to deny people in daily, severe pain access to opioid therapies. Our “News” section links to current issues in the news, the latest pain science studies and government policy regarding chronic pain treatment.
We are driven by science
In June 2020 the government mandated changes to the way opioid pain relieving medications are prescribed. These changes were largely misapplied by GPs and pain management doctors, and used to deny patients living with high impact chronic pain access to these life saving medications . These changes were enacted due to the opioid epidemic in the US, which it is now starting to be understood is NOT due to opioids prescribed for chronic pain, but illicit fentanyl and other street drugs. Australia is blindly following down the same misguided path, ignoring the science, the evidence, that chronic pain patients are not the cause of any opioid epidemic. Opioids are the only treatment for severe, daily pain. To deny pain relief is cruelty and these policies are based on myth, not science.
“I use a range of therapies for my chronic pain, including exercise, physiotherapy and opioid pain medications. My pain medications are the thing that allows me to exercise but now my doctor is taking my medications away.”
willemina ward – ankylosing spondylitis
“My neurologist doesn’t manage my pain, I need to see a pain management specialist for that. It means traveling four hours each way every three months. Even an hour in the car is agonising, let alone four.”
daniel green – crps
“I live with multiple chronic diseases and my main symptom is pain. Access to multidisciplinary care is essential. I am one of the very few lucky ones who is still being prescribed my opioid medications”
Sean Fisher – mixed connective tissue disease
Tell your story
If you have been force-tapered off your opioid pain-relieving medications against your will and to your detriment, please get in touch.
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