Chronic Pain on Dr. Phil

Every so often one of the afternoon talk shows dedicates a whole five minutes to discussing a health issue. Most recently that talk show was Dr. Phil (again), and again he brought on Pfizer Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Frieda Lewis-Hall.

This episode focused on Mary, who has lived for years with chronic pain in her hands, back, and joints. She talked about how it affects her at work, and how she’s had to miss out on many things from life. She’s reached a point where she feels she needs to try something else for pain relief beyond OTC medications. She has arthritis in her thumbs, and always has pain in her hands; however, her back pain and other pain varies. She has been taking OTC medications daily. She’s tried prescription meds and supplements, but is concerned with taking anything daily.

Dr. Lewis-Hall was quick to point out that “one person with chronic pain, is one person with chronic pain”, that chronic pain is complex and we are all different, and chronic pain affects everyone differently. The key, she says, is to put a treatment plan together that is fit to that person. She says that you need to work with your medical TEAM to characterize your pain and assess risks and benefits of the various treatment options. She also mentioned several alternative therapies like yoga, acupuncture, and massage. She also suggested diet and maintaining a healthy weight to help reduce chronic pain.

In the end she directed people to Pfizer website – Get Health, Stay Healthy – and the tools there to help you assess your pain and better discuss it with your doctor.

Just once I’d love to see one of these shows do a whole hour on chronic pain, spend more than five minutes on a story before casting it aside. When they do this, it makes me feel like they really don’t care. They use us to fill empty space when the drama of the day didn’t quite fill an hour. Evidence of this can be seen with the way that they schedule and then reschedule Dr. Lewis-Hall’s appearances on the show; along with the fact that they film a good bit more than they run. I’m sure they decide it’s not interesting enough to keep their audience; I guess we need to make an effort to let them know we want more.

[Tweet “Hey @DrPhil how about a whole hour dedicated to #Fibromyalgia and #ChronicPain ?”]