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By Open Society Institute & Soros Foundations Network
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 22, 2002
Contact: Amy Weil (212) 548-0381
NEW YORK—In a paper released today, a leading neurologist specializing in pain and palliative care said that many of the more than 50 million people in the United States living with chronic pain forgo effective treatment with prescription medication due to misperceptions and fears of addiction.
Dr. Kathy Foley, M.D., who authored the lead piece in the "Ideas" paper published today by the Open Society Institute, said that fear of addiction to pain medications were largely fed by sensationalized media reports documenting the illegal abuse of OxyContin and drugs that would otherwise safely treat people suffering from pain.
Those with strong steady hearts often take them for granted. But those with less reliable organs can now take heart.
In our early life, we mostly speak of our hearts in the context of love. We give our hearts to our lovers, we whisper heart-felt words of love; feel heartbreak at love’s loss. For millennia, poets have spun delicate linguistic castles from the very fibres of heart muscle.
Even we of the third millennium, who know the heart’s anatomy and physiology intimately, still use heart-as-soul metaphors.
In our youth, this heart, the organ of our soul, is the heart that occupies our foreground.
Eldercare is becoming a prominent aspect of many Baby Boomers' lives
as they get thrust into the role of “caregiver” for an ailing
parent--often after a crisis. But first-time caregivers are typically
unprepared for the tremendous physical, emotional and financial
challenges and often become overwhelmed trying to find the right
doctors, diagnoses and treatments--as their own lives go on
interminable hold. I have lived this nightmare and can attest to how
difficult it is.
The decision to place your loved one into a nursing home is an extremely difficult decision, often causing much guilt for the caregiver. It is a very emotional decision for most clients we see and most are under a certain amount of stress, often great, when facing what they consider to be a drastic course of action.
I counsel our caregiver clients to get beyond the guilt as quickly as
they can, because the situation their loved one is in is not the
caregiver’s fault. And besides, the longer you remain under this
stress, the less healthy you eat, or you eat way too much, the less you
sleep, and some start drinking (my own mother started this late at
night after she got my dad settled in bed for the evening – not healthy
to say the least).
