Inside St Vincent’s Health 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 NERVOUS SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT PERSON BODY

BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM 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’s Health 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.