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Medical schools are improving pain education, but non-specialized FPs left with much of burden
EDMONTON - Doctors who treat pain in Canada are as diverse as pain itself. Some are pain experts and some are doctors who just happen to confront pain in their patients regularly. Whether they are anesthesiologists, family doctors, psychiatrists, neurologists or oncologists, all find treating pain challenging and, sometimes, very rewarding.
Pain management is roughly divided into acute pain, cancer pain and noncancer or chronic pain, said chronic pain specialist Dr. Saifee Rashiq, an associate professor in the department of anesthesiology and pain at the University of Alberta (U of A), and a staff anesthesiologist at the U of A hospital, where he is also director of the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre.
Not all doctors offering pain management in Canada for these different types of pain have the same specialized training-or even any specialized training.
"There's no formal training for pain management specialists," explained Dr. Rashiq. "(Patients) could be seeing someone who just happens to have an interest in the subject, or (they) could be seeing someone who has gone away to a special centre and trained for a year or two."
"In acute pain and cancer pain the reason for the pain is usually fairly self-evident," he said. "In chronic pain it's much more complex.
"What pain management specialists bring to the table is a broader understanding of what's happening to the patient," Dr. Rashiq said. "They should be able to take a patient at their word and really focus on their care rather than trying to arrive at some clever...