Inside St Vincent’sHealth insights from inside one of Australia’s leading

hospitals

Professor Milton Cohen, Senior Specialist in Pain Medicine and Rheumatology at St Vincent’s Hospital.Professor Richard Day AM, Director of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at St Vincent’s Hospital.Associate Professor Steven Faux, Director of Rehabilitation Medicine and Pain Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital. Jane Worthington, Journalist and Health Reporter.

“To have pain is to have certainty; to hear about pain is to

have doubt.” Elaine Scarry, 1985

“Johnny, are you in pain?”“No, Mummy. The pain is in

me.”The Advertiser, 1927

Quoted in The Lancet , 30 June 2012

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Kahlil Gibran

Chronic Pain is a Public Health Issue in

Australia• Prevalence• Related disability 25%• Affected

• By 2020

• Cost

• 3.2 million• 0.8 million• 6.4 million

• 5 million

• $34B

Source Access Economics/MBF Foundation, 2007

PAIN

An unpleasant

sensory and emotional

experience

associated with

actual or potential tissue damage

or described in terms of such

damage

“Types” of Pain

• “Acute” pain– usually short duration– usually associated with “tissue damage”

• “Cancer” pain– associated with the disease itself

• “Chronic” or “persistent” non-cancer pain– includes pain after cancer treatment

BRAIN AND

NERVOUSSYSTEM

ENVIRONMENT

PERSON

BODY

BRAIN AND

NERVOUSSYSTEM

ENVIRONMENT

PERSON

BODY

What’s happening to your body

What’s happening to you as a person

What’s happening in your world

Inside St Vincent’sHealth insights from inside one of Australia’s leading

hospitals

Professor Milton Cohen, Senior Specialist in Pain Medicine and Rheumatology at St Vincent’s Hospital.Professor Richard Day AM, Director of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at St Vincent’s Hospital.Associate Professor Steven Faux, Director of Rehabilitation Medicine and Pain Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital. Jane Worthington, Journalist and Health Reporter.