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Biotech / Medical : CYTO -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Webhead who wrote (7296)	6/17/1998 3:43:00 PM
From: Richard Catterall	Respond to of 8116

From Infobeat. Not directly Cyto info but probably a market that Quadramet and other drugs NEED to cover to help these people. 12:54 PM ET 06/16/98 Study faults pain treatment in cancer patients Release at 4 p.m. EDT) CHICAGO (Reuters) - Many cancer patients in U.S. nursing homes suffer pain every day but get nothing to treat it in part because they don't ask, researchers said Tuesday. The problem worsens with age, according to a report by U.S. and European researchers, and may be traced to the belief that pain is a natural part of growing older, or to age-related sensory and cognitive impairment or depression. The study, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, was based on data from more than 13,000 nursing home patients in five states. The patients were either interviewed or their cases assessed.The researchers found that about 40 percent of the patients were in pain daily and 25 percent of those in that situation received no analgesics, which are pain-relieving drugs. Thirty-two percent of those in pain were given weak opiates and 26 percent received morphine or similar substance. The study was conducted by researchers at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome and at Brown University. 'As age increased, a greater proportion of patients in pain received no analgesic drugs. Patients older than 75 were more likely to have no analgesia relative to patients aged 65 to 74,'' the report said. ''Elderly and minority cancer patients may receive inadequate analgesia in part due to an underestimation or underreporting of pain. The presence of multiple concurrent medical problems, the increased likelihood of cognitive and sensory impairment, and the presence of depression may all contribute to underreporting of pain,'' it added. 'The elderly may experience more pain than younger people, although they may be less likely to complain about it,'' it said. Charles Cleeland of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, commenting on the report in an editorial in the same issue, said most doctors are not well trained to manage pain. ''The best pain management requires an informed patient who is willing to report pain and to voice complaints if pain is not controlled,'' Cleeland wrote. ''Patients are reluctant to report pain for a variety of reasons, including fear that reporting pain will take away physician time away from their treatment of cancer.'' He said it was unfortunate that ''it is the rule rather than the exception that patients must volunteer that they are in pain before health care professionals take notice.'' ^REUTERS@