For the past five years, PAINS has published a report focused on our work and that of others to promote a “cultural transformation in the way pain is perceived, judged and treated.” Below is the 2017 report, The CNN Effect: The mediatization of pain policy. In concert with our No Longer Silent initiative, a project focused on changing the public narrative about chronic pain and those who live with it, we are pleased to share with you this report highlighting how both traditional and social media impact pain policy and the lives of those living with chronic pain, as well as their capacity to have positive and negative consequences.
The term “the CNN effect” was coined after the Gulf War to characterize the impact of 24-hour/7-days per week cable news on military strategy and public perception. Today this concept is taught in journalism schools across the country. It is our view that the so-called CNN effect is no longer limited to military decisions; we believe that it has leeched into public health policy in a significant way.
Those of us advocating on behalf of people living with chronic pain believe that significant education about chronic pain as a disease, the struggles of those who live with it, and the relationship between the opioid addiction epidemic and efforts to improve chronic pain care is needed. Work completed this year leads us to conclude that a national social marketing campaign is needed; this campaign can change public perception and thereby improve pain policy. However, as we move in this direction and encourage others who do so, we advise caution.
Our country currently struggles with distinctions between “facts” and “alternative facts,” “truth” and “opinion,” “reporting” and “editorializing.” As a society, we are now, perhaps more than ever before, concerned about the veracity of news and its impact on public policy and our daily lives. It is our hope that we have not succumbed to the hyperbole and weak-evidence base that has clouded issues about chronic pain and opioid addiction for too long.
It is also our hope that this report will cause those who read it to do so critically and to provide us with feedback.
It is very interesting that you are talking about chronic pain. I suffer from chronic back pain and I suffer from spinal Stenosis .Also pain from legs to my back. I do take pain medication and it just wont work. I also have a son who suffer from pain all over his body neck ,legs, back ,Neck, arms. I like the idea that you can have a study that can help us relieve the pain beside opiates.
We know opiates help if taken right can help some people. But we also know what help one may not help others.
While I sympathize with Mr. Bolling and all who are affected by the “opioid crises, I, as someone who relies on a combination of opioids and neuro stimulation to even function at a diminished capacity, am concerned that those of us that truly need these drugs to even function may find themselves facing a life of pain unnecessarily. Before anyone assumes that I have not tried other ways to control my pain, I have tried almost all available alternatives, except cannabis oil, before advancing to opioids as an adjunct to the neuro stimulation which has allowed me to function. We must take into account that by reducing the availability to have such drugs for those who suffer as I do with intractable pain, we may be sentencing us to a life of pain and reduced functionality and even the contemplation of suicide. Any person”s death is a tragedy and I pray for Mr. Bolling and all the other families who have lost someone to drug addiction. However, we must not allow these tragedies prevent the proper care, which may or may not include opioids, of those suffering with intractable pain.
I too feel there needs to be changes made as to how to treat chronic pain. In regards to Cynthia Taylor, I too am a chronic pain sufferer and at one time for 8 years I was on opiods that fortunately worked for me. The problem with opiods is that thd dosage must be increased to maintain the same level of relief and once it gets too high doctors are reluctant to fill your prescription……and you are left in a suicidal state as you try to cope with your pain. I still take OTC pain medications and have had a SCS implant that does help, but the chronic pain is still present and I simply put on my happy face and do the best I can.
To Kobowritinglife, I too have tried many different procedures and at least found one that allows me to function somewhat. I think a good start regarding opiods is to educate the public that just because an individual is prescribed an opiod for pain, does not mean they are an addict. YES, we become dependent upon the opiod, but we are NOT addicts. The way the general public views opiods right now is there is no difference between the two; they are the same. I KNOW this because my own father insists it is and has gone so far as to tell my entire family that I was an addict for 8 years. Suffering each and everyday only to have someone I once respected tell everyone I was an addict broke me down mentally that he truly believes that to be true……and unfortunately so do a lot of others. If I didn’t have a wife to keep me from losing it, I don’t even want to think of where I might be now. Educating people is where we must begin. Addiction and dependency are not interchangeable words and anytime a person who is dependent is called an addict the feeling we get is degrading to say the least.
Some people seem to think severe pain sufferers choosing the safe Opiates, instead of the often dangerous and fruitless “other modalities” are the price to be paid for a relatively very few overdoses, almost ALL of those from illicit ‘street’ heroin or a random encounter with an illicit, super strong ‘street’ Fentanyl analog.