Last updated: Sat, Aug 17, 2024
Science costs money, so people with money and people with money to be made choose what science is done. I haven't done any research into this, but from reading pain textbooks intended for student doctors, I am struck with the amount and sophistication of extremely expensive biochemical research that is reported. My guess is that this is ultimately a business investment of pharmaceutical companies. The search is on for anti-pain medications with fewer negative effects than the current anti-pain medicines. I wish them luck and speed!
On the other hand is the research into the human side of pain. How it can be treated in a clinic, whether psychological approaches to treating pain and its effects can be made more effective. This all seems to be done by a rather small group of practitioner/professors at a small group of schools on quite a low-tech basis. Who has a financial interest in improving the clinical, non-pharmaceutical treatment of pain?
I have seen almost no research into the lives of pain sufferers. How does being in pain affect one's day-to-day experience? How does being in pain affect one's ability to do things? To participate in life? (My impressions on this are outlined in The Challenge of Living in Pain.) If pain can't be cured, and drugs aren't the answer, what is?
My overall impression is that pain sufferers and the direct needs of pain sufferers have almost no input into setting the reseearch agenda. But then, there is much that I do not know.