More painful
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat. Pain from sickle cell disease is more prevalent than previous studies revealed. In a study of 232 patients ages 16 and older, more than a quarter experienced pain 95 or more of every 100 days in a six-month period. A study participant, 43-year-old Travis Glenn of Virginia, says: “Constant pain, nagging pain, every day, all day, sometines worse than others, but definitely everyday you got a little pain.” (7 seconds) Dr. Wally Smith of Virginia Commonwealth University looks at sickle cell disease as a chronic pain syndrome. Smith says pain managed in a hospital is only the tip of the iceberg, so doctors must find treatments that deal with chronic pain. The study in Annals of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health. Learn more at hhs.gov. HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss. Last revised: March, 10 2008 | 
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