printer-friendly version (PDF) - Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy ...

EDITORS’ CORNER | COMPLEX REGIONAL PAIN SYNDROME
exercise and activity, and various psychological treatments.
Covington says, “There are people with CRPS who have
managed to transcend it and have a life. For others, it’s less the
case that they have CRPS than that ‘CRPS has them.’”
Pediatric CRPS can be an entirely different syndrome. In his
article, “When Children Hurt too Much: Diagnosis and
Treatment of Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain.” David D.
Sherry, MD, discusses amplified musculoskeletal pain and
describes the epidemiology, etiology, clinical manifestations,
diagnosis, and treatment, and outcomes of these conditions
based on his experience. He says that with the treatment he
recommends, “Most children do well.”
The magazine also includes a special section with articles
focusing on emerging treatments for CRPS (both
pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches). An
article by Joshua P. Prager, MD, explores the use of spinal cord
stimulation for people with CRPS. Lynn R. Webster, MD, and
Keri L. Fakata, PharmD, discuss ziconotide, a new, nonnarcotic
treatment delivered via an intrathecal pump that is a
treatment option for CRPS patients. Donald C. Manning,
MD, PhD, describes other emerging treatments, and Philip
Getson, MD, gives a brief summary of thermography in the
diagnosis of CRPS.
The section, People with CRPS: Their Stories and
Accomplishments, presents stories about five people with CRPS,
who in spite of their pain, are working in a variety of ways to
support others with the condition.
The issue concludes with a compelling and thoughtful
commentary by Peter A. Moskovitz, MD, called “A Theory of
Suffering.” Moskowitz puts forth a six-part theory that explores
the nature of suffering. He concludes by saying, “The capacity
for suffering is the precursor to natural morality. I stand at the end
of a long line of scientists and ethicists, some cited here, to repeat
that empathy and the understanding of suffering, however elusive
they may be, are the moral obligation of the pain practitioner.…
The treatment of diseases and injuries includes the treatment of
pain. The treatment of pain is all about suffering.”
Debra Nelson Hogan is a communications consultant for RSDSA.
Adding a New Dimension
to The Pain Practitioner
THE ACADEMY WELCOMES JAMES GIORDANO, PHD,
AS MEDICINE AND HUMANITIES EDITOR
THROUGH THE PAIN PRACTITIONER, the American Academy
of Pain Management has provided clinicians with practical
information about pain management and the latest trends in
the field. Now, we are taking the publication a step further.
Starting with this issue, we will be looking at pain, not only
from scientific and medical perspectives, but from the perspective
of the humanities as well—a perspective that hopefully
will give us a greater understanding of the experience of pain,
and how it expressed by those who suffer with it.
To this end, the Academy is pleased to welcome James
Giordano, PhD, as Medicine and Humanities Editor. In this
role, Dr. Giordano will write provide editorial input and write
commentary related the theme of the issue.
“My hope is that we emerge from this Decade of Pain
Control and Research with knowledge and understanding that
advances our epistemology of pain, and in so doing, reconcile
science, medicine and the humanities.” Dr. Giordano says.
“My goal as Medicine and Humanities Editor of The Pain
Practitioner is to create a forum for the provision and
exchange of these ideas—a
forum in which those who
treat people with pain are
empowered by the knowledge
that can only be provided
through a lens that
brings together the
pragmatic sharpness of biomedicine
and the sentient
focus of the humanities.” JAMES GIORDANO, PhD
Dr. Giordano’s ongoing research focuses on the neuroscience
and neurophilosphy of pain, agent-based virtue ethics
in pain research and practice, and neuroethics. He is currently
a Scholar in Residence at the Center for Clinical Bioethics,
Georgetown University Medical Center; a Visiting Scholar at
the Center for Ethics, Dartmouth Medical School; a Fellow
of the John P. McGovern MD Center for Health, Humanities
and the Human Spirit, University of Texas Health Sciences
Center; and, an invited lecturer of the Roundtable in Arts and
Sciences, Oxford University, UK. He is the author of over 55
peer-reviewed papers and three books addressing the neuroscience
of pain, medical philosophy, and bioethics. He is
the bioethics section editor of the American Journal of Pain
Management, editor of the Journal of Practical Pain Management,
and neuroscience editor of the Pain Physician Journal.
8 | T H E PA I N P R A C T I T I O N E R | S P R I N G 2 0 0 6