There are several reasons why pain and symptom management come under “Care Inequalities:”

1. Some people do not receive proper pain and symptom management because of the other health care disparities listed on this web site.

2. Others do not receive proper treatment because:

(a) patients and/or physicians and or nurses believe wrongly that proper treatment leads to an early death or overdosing

(b) they wrongly believe that proper treatment leads to addictions to pain medication

(c) health care providers wrongly believe that they are at great risk of legal prosecution for providing proper treatment

(d) they wrongly believe that people with the same conditions require the same pain and symptom management regardless of their gender, weight or other health care conditions

(e) they wrongly believe that providing proper amounts of pain medication leads to tolerance of the drugs which later means even worse pain management

The following studies provide greater insights:

Pain Free by 2003 Survey                      Pain & Symptom Studies