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| The National Chronic Pain Outreach Association, Inc. (NCPOA) is a non-profit organization established in 1980. Its purpose is to lessen the suffering of people with chronic pain by educating pain sufferers, health care professionals, and the public about chronic pain and its management.
NCPOA helps people with chronic pain regain control of their lives, spreading the message, "You can lead a fulfilling life despite the pain." |
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| Helpful Hint: Talk to your physician or other health care professionals about pain management options. Depending on your individual situation these may include: medication, physical therapy, manual therapy, exercise, T.E.N.S., biofeedback, nerve blocks, surgery, acupuncture, hypnosis, relaxation and stress management training, and counseling. |
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| Friday, June 20, 2003 |
| NCPOA has joined forces with Partners for Understanding Pain; a consortium of organizations that touch the lives of people with chronic, acute and cancer pain. NCPOA, along with the Partners for Understanding Pain is dedicated to building the understanding and support that can help people who live with chronic, acute and cancer pain lead better lives.
Partners list: http://www.theacpa.org/pu_02.asp |
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| Everyone suffers from acute pain when injured or ill, but acute pain goes away quickly. Chronic pain is defined by experts as pain that has not gone away or recurs frequently even after six months have passed. Traditional treatment methods often fail to bring relief. |
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| Chronic pain affects people of all ages, races, and occupations. Severe chronic pain is a devastating health problem that affects as many as one in ten Americans (more than 25 million people).
Chronic pain disables more people than cancer or heart disease. It costs the U.S. economy more than $90 billion per year in medical costs, disability payments, and productivity. Yet it has received little attention from medical researchers until recently and is one of the most under funded major health problems in the United States.
For every person seeking relief from chronic pain, others are inevitably affected: husbands and wives, parents and children, friends, employers and co-workers. Chronic pain can interfere with every aspect of a person's life: work, relationships, self-esteem, and emotional well-being.
Chronic pain brings a burden of depression, anxiety, frustration, fatigue, isolation, and lowered self-esteem. Pain makes it hard to work, hard to play, hard to get support from others, and hard to live a happy life. Chronic pain shatters productive lives. |
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| The most common types of chronic pain are headaches, back pain, and arthritis pain. Other common types include neck pain, fibromyalgia/fibrosis, myofascial pain, TMJ pain, "whiplash" pain, sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, pelvic pain, neuropathy and neuralgia pain, and phantom limb pain.
Chronic pain can also result from illness or conditions such as osteoporosis, lupus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, scoliosis, endometriosis, and scleroderma. In many cases, unfortunately, the underlying cause of an individual's chronic pain is unknown. |
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| Copyright © 2003 National Chronic Pain Outreach Association, Inc. |
| All Rights Reserved. |
| Founded by Gwendolyn Talbot |
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