People receiving haemodialysis for kidney failure frequently feel chronic pain associated with their disease, which can be difficult to manage with opioid medication and other traditional treatments.A new study finds that offering these patients pain coping skills training (PCST) significantly reduced their suffering and improved their quality of life.
Twenty-two New Mexicans – many of them Native American – participated in UNM’s arm of the study, said Mark Unruh, MD, Chair, UNM Department of Internal Medicine “This is particularly important for these patients since the therapeutic choices for pain management are limited and the use of opioids has been shown to be associated with poor outcomes in this group.”