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Chronic
Pain Undertreated in Children
DATTELN (Reuters Health) - Nearly every
German child suffering from chronic or recurrent pain is being
inadequately treated, according to an expert in child pain management.
Dr. Boris Zernikow, head of the
University of Witten/Herdecke's department of pediatric pain therapy
and palliative care at Children's Hospital in Datteln, said that
in Germany about 1 million children suffer from chronic or recurrent
abdominal pain or headaches, and about 500,000 from muscle and
joint pain.
In interview with Reuters Health,
he stressed that he was not exaggerating the extent of inadequate
treatment in Germany.
"Yes, I'm serious," Zernikow said.
"I think 99% (of children) are not treated adequately for pain.
When I say 'not adequate' I mean inadequate medical treatment,
inadequate psychological treatment and inadequate social treatment."
He also estimates that more than
half of German children who undergo surgery are given inadequate
post-operative treatment for pain, and more than a third are given
no post-operative pain treatment at all.
Inadequate pain treatment of children
is not confined to Germany, but is an international problem, Zernikow
said.
For example, his hospital in Datteln
is the only one in Germany that focuses on treating children's
pain, while the US--the leader in pediatric pain treatment--has
only a handful of similar hospitals and the UK only a couple,
he said.
Zernikow said children in pain
generally receive less attention than adults for several reasons,
including the fact that adults are better able to verbally express
their pain and also for the simple reason that more adults suffer
from pain than children.
However, Zernikow believes concern
about the issue is beginning to grow, as evidenced by interest
in a three-day conference on "pain management for children and
pediatric palliative care" that he organized and that begins Thursday
in Recklinghausen.
Some 800 people had registered
as of Tuesday, and he expects up to an additional couple hundred
to register at the door.
Reference
Source 89
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