OCR Text |
Show 4U' Pain Clinic Works For 'Special' Patients Pain can be a nebulous problem. An inflammed gall bladder or a diseased appendix obviously can be a direct cause. But what about pain that doesn't appear to have medical roots? What happens to the person feeling that pain who goes from doctor to doctor, only to be told there is no medical cause and "it appears to be in your head"? "These people know they hurt," said Dr. Steven Zlutnick, a psychologist in the University of Utah Medical Center. "They are frustrated and angry at the medical system that has failed to treat their pain "In their suffering, they often become dependent on pain killers, and their days are spent trying to get prescriptions filled by going from physician to physician." Dr. Zlutnick and his colleagues operate a pain clinic through the Medical Center's division of behavioral medicine in the psychiatry department. Some clinics are uesignea to treat patients who appear to have medical reasons for the pain; Dr. Zlutnick's patients are those who have been essentially rejected by the medical system and who are often referred to by medical practitioners as ''crocks,'' or psychosomatic com-plainers. "The people we see are usually very complicated patients," Dr. Zlutnick said. "They have been suffering for many years and usually have had numerous operations." And tins is where the vicious cycle begins. Dr. Zlutnick said that as these people become more addicted to pain killers, their Dain levels become worse The most common drugs taken by these people involve such analgesics as Percodan or Demerol, or "hypno-sedative drugs" such as Valium or Librium. "Through our experience with over 125 patients in the last 18 months and through the experience of their researchers in the field, we find that these patients will not get better until they get off the drugs "They must go through a hospitalization for detoxification and we find that in the vast majority of cases, their pain begins to get better after they kick the drug habit "Our patients take drugs out of what appears to be necessity for them The more they take, the more the pain seems to increase and their drug intake increases proportionately." In counseling sessions. Dr. Zlutnick and his colleagues take the approach that the pain is real. "We tell them that we believe them when they say they hurt, and we really ao oeneve them," he added. Their addiction may be two-fold: they could either be physiologically or psychologically ad dieted, or both. "Once we get them detoxified, then we use nonspecific therapies, such as relaxation techniques or hypnosis, and in the formerly drug-dependent patients, these therapies are usually very effective." Dr Zlutnick said that he and his coworkers know how to get results with these patients' What we are em phasizing now is con ducting research with many of them to find out why all this happens." |