Chronic pain, dahilan din sa suicide

HALOS isa sa 10 suicide deaths sa Amerika ay nangyayari sa mga taong may chronic pain, ayon sa bagong pag-aaral.

Inihayag sa findings na ang pagkakaroon ng chronic pain ay maaaring sanhi para magpatiwakal ang isang tao, lahad ng mga awtor.

Kahit na hindi pa napatutunayan na maaaring maging dahilan ang chronic pain sa desisyon ng taong kitilin ang sariling buhay, “we did see that mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety were more common among those with chronic pain,” sabi ng pangunahing awtor na si Dr. Emiko Petrosky, medical epidemiologist sa U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sa Atlanta.

“Health care providers caring for patients with chronic pain should be aware of the risk for suicide,” sabi ni Petrosky sa Reuters Health. “Chronic pain is a huge public health problem. It’s essential that we improve chronic pain management through integrated patient centered management that includes mental health care in addition to medications for these patients.”

Sa pag-aaral, napatunayan na ang proportion ng suicide sa mga taong nakararanas ng chronic pain ay tumaas, mula 7.4 percent noong 2003 ay naging 10.2 percent noong 2014.

Ngunit ipinahayag din ng team ni Petrosky na tumaas din ang bilang ng mga taong nakararanas ng chronic pain sa parehong panahon.

Malaking bilang ng chronic pain na naitalang nararanasan ng publiko ay pananakit ng likod, cancer pain, at arthritis pain.

Higit sa kalahati ang bilang ng mga taong kinitil ang sariling buhay ang may firearmrelated injuries, habang 16.2 percent naman ang namatay dahil sa opioid overdose.

“Opioids are depressants and they increase the risk of depression,” sabi ni Dr. Paul Nestadt ng department of psychiatry and behavioral health sa Johns Hopkins School of Medicine sa Baltimore. Wala siyang kinalaman sa bagong pag-aaral. “Depression is one of the highest risk factors for completing suicide.”

“The new study can’t say anything about the state of chronic pain management in this country, but we do know that there aren’t any medications that seem to be particularly effective for chronic pain,” ayon naman kay

Dr. Michael L. Barnett, health policy and management researcher sa Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at isang primary care physician sa Brigham & Women’s Hospital sa Boston. Wala rin siyang kinalaman sa pagaaral. “Both opioids and NSAIDs are pretty effective in treating acute pain, but not chronic pain. While people often want a pill that will fix things, comprehensive pain management is proven to be pretty effective.”

Ang problema sa ganitong klaseng pagaaral ay ang katunayang hindi mo alam kung ang ano ang iba pang dahilan ng mga taong biktima, lahad ni Dr. Ajay D. Wasan, vice president for scientific affairs sa American Academy of Pain Medicine, at isang propesor ng anesthesia at psychiatry sa University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“Chronic pain is certainly an important risk factor, but we don’t know how important it is compared to other risk factors,” sabi ni Dr. Ajay, na wala ring kaugnayan sa pag-aaral.

“Also, since chronic pain is not really coded well at the time of a suicide, this is probably an underestimate of the proportion of people who had chronic pain. We do know that chronic pain can be a deadly disease,” dagdag pa niya.