“Children Will Listen”…but do Doctors?

According to the creator of the UCLA Pediatric Pain Clinic and Whole Child LA, 1 in 5 children in the United States has chronic pain. Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer says, “children who have chronic pain for long periods of time and who have gone through so many evaluations by different sub-specialists and diagnostic tests and treatments, have conditions that seem fairly easy to understand and treat … if the right framework is used and the right questions are asked.” But for many young people, practitioners appear bored, disbelieving, uninterested, or tell their patients "You're too young to be chronically ill."

Practitioners may think children are just going through growing pains. Penney Cowan, CEO and founder of the American Chronic Pain Association, commented about some clinicians, "They have never been trained to recognize and/or treat kids in pain.” Unfortunately, there are many children in pain who are not receiving the care, or even the communication, they deserve.

 

Read more in the article by Lisa A. Goldstein.

 

Other Categories:

• pain diagnostics

• pain management

• pain policy

• pediatric pain management

• pediatrics