Global Pain Initiatives

WMA Resolution on the Access to Adequate Pain Treatment

Adopted by the 62nd WMA General Assembly, Montevideo, Uruguay, October 2011

PREAMBLE

Around the world, tens of millions of people with cancer and other diseases and conditions experience moderate to severe pain without access to adequate treatment. These people face severe suffering, often for months on end, and many eventually die in pain, which is unnecessary and almost always preventable and treatable. People who may not be able to adequately express their pain - such as children and people with intellectual disabilities or with consciousness impairments - are especially at risk of receiving inadequate pain treatment.

It is important to acknowledge the indirect consequences of inadequate pain treatment, such as a negative economic impact, as well as the individual human suffering directly resulting from untreated pain.

In most cases, pain can be stopped or relieved with inexpensive and relatively simple treatment interventions, which can dramatically improve the quality of life for patients.

It is accepted that some pain is particularly difficult to treat and requires the application of complex techniques by, for example, multidisciplinary teams. Sometimes, especially in cases of severe chronic pain, psycho-emotional factors are even more important than biological factors.

Lack of education for health professionals in the assessment and treatment of pain and other symptoms, and unnecessarily restrictive government regulations (including limiting access to opioid pain medications) are two major reasons for this treatment gap.