Pain Medicine

One of the most distressing symptoms of any disease is pain. In the United States alone, millions of people suffer from cancer pain. However, many people do not report their pain or seek appropriate treatment. False beliefs that compromise effective pain management include:

• Physicians might stop treatment when pain is reported
• Pain indicates the spreading of cancer
• Pain is "normal"
• Pain medicines cause addiction and harsh side effects

Pain Medicine is dedicated to finding the best treatment options for patients with cancer pain.

To do this efficiently, we have divided up our section into two different services to provide care. The Cancer Pain Service works with both inpatient and outpatients to manage their pain. The Postoperative Pain Service assists patients that have pain after surgery.

We serve the MD Anderson community by:
 

• Making quality patient care our #1 priority
• Offering comprehensive, interdisciplinary cancer pain management services
• Facilitating maximum pain control, minimizing treatment-related side effects and maintaining a patient's optimum wellness
• Upholding MD Anderson's core values of caring, integrity and discovery
• Striving to care for the whole person, physically, emotionally and spiritually
• Participating in clinical trials to continuously improve our services
• Educating the professional, patient and public sectors about pain assessment and management techniques
• Acting as pain management activists to help define proactive, patient-focused care
• Staffing our services with compassionate and caring health care professionals