HHS releases final report on pain management

Editor's Note

The Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task force, a Health and Human Services (HHA) federal advisory committee on May 30 released its final report.

The report calls for a balanced, individualized, patient-centered approach to pain management and underscores the need to address stigma, risk assessment, access to care, and education.

The report also highlights five pain treatment categories:

• medications
• restorative therapies
• interventional procedures
• behavioral health approaches
• complimentary and integrative health approaches.

The report is a roadmap that is desperately needed to treat the nation’s pain crisis, HHS says.