The American chronic pain crisis and the media: about time to get it right?

Michael E SchatmanUS Pain Foundation, Bellevue, Washington/Middletown, Connecticut, USAOn November 23, 2015, the venerable Wall Street Journal published an article entitled "New Help for Back Pain".1 In this article, the author wrote of "an innovative approach to help patients cope and heal called functional restoration", suggesting that it helps avoid costly diagnostic tests, surgery and other expensive treatments, and the risks of problems potentially associated with opioid analgesics. While the author’s claims regarding interdisciplinary chronic pain management’s potential benefits are accurate, as is so often the case, the media’s inability to comprehend the "big picture" of the American crisis in pain medicine has resulted in yet another much-read yet highly biased and misinformative article that ultimately serves to exacerbate the difficulties with which our patients, and the system that they attempt to navigate, are faced.