Word: bonica
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...distress in focus. In my younger days, a truck hit my car and I spent nine months in an itchy body cast, but I no longer have painful, or even unpleasant, memories of the event." Thompson, in reporting the cover story, was especially impressed by Seattle Anesthesiologist John Bonica, an immigrant and former circus strongman who went on to become a pioneer in the field of pain alleviation...
...told, nearly one-third of the American population have persistent or recurrent chronic pain, according to Seattle Anesthesiologist John Bonica, founder of the International Association for the Study of Pain and a world-renowned leader in pain research. Of these, he estimates, one-half to two-thirds are partly or totally disabled for periods of days, weeks or months, or for life. "Chronic pain disables more people than cancer or heart disease," says Bonica, "and it costs the American people more money than both." His estimate: $70 billion a year in medical costs, lost working days and compensation. The human...
...pain is just beginning to emerge from the dark ages. "Pain is the weak link in modern medicine," says Dr. Josef Wang, director of the pain center at the Mayo Clinic. To begin with, medical students receive only the scantest introduction to the subject. A 1983 survey by Bonica of 17 standard textbooks on surgery, medicine and cancer found that only 54 pages out of a total of 22,000 provided information about pain; half of the books did not discuss it at all. Part of the problem is that there are relatively few known facts to discuss. Pain research...
...study, the problem was largely due to ignorance: most staff physicians simply overestimated the efficacy and duration of painkillers. They also overestimated the risks of narcotics, worrying excessively about the possibility of respiratory problems and addiction. "We've become a nation obsessed with drug addiction," says Bonica, "and this has led to a serious problem with underdosing." Congress is considering legislation to legalize the use of heroin to ease suffering by terminal-cancer patients...
...fact, some people seem to have a heavy emotional investment in continuing their pain, which is quite real to the patient, even if it is of psychosomatic origin. Explains Dr. John Bonica of the University of Washington in Seattle, co-founder of the first major pain-relief clinic in the U.S.: "Take the case of a middle-aged lady who has been married for about 20 years and whose children are grown and have left home. She has an emotional need for love and affection, but her husband is always busy with his work. One day this lady falls...