Featured Stories | Pain and the Military

Many of America's Heroes Are Battling a Persistent "Enemy": Unrelieved Chronic Pain

Advances in battlefield medicine are helping to save the lives of service men and women who might otherwise have died as the result of traumatic injuries. However, once they are out of immediate danger, they often face prolonged periods of recovery and rehabilitation marked by frustration and pain.

One major concern is the long-term care and well-being of service men and women who are returning to the U.S. with amputations and other blast-related injuries, according to the Amputee Coalition of America (ACA), a non-profit organization representing people who have experienced amputation or are born with limb differences.

The Military and Veterans Pain Care Acts Signed Into Law

Fortunately, the American Pain Foundation and an alliance of patient advocacy organizations have banded together to improve the care of returning service men and women. Two major pain care bills—the Veterans Pain Care Policy Act and the Military Pain Care Policy Act of 2008—were recently signed into law. They call for critical pain care policy improvements for military personnel and veterans. For more information, visit the American Pain Foundation website at: http://www.painfoundation.org

Pain Management Resources

• American Pain Foundation Project on Military/Veterans and Pain
• Pain Management and the Amputee (Amputee Coalition of America Fact Sheet)
• Military in-Step Resource Guide (Amputee Coalition of America)

Listen to the Special Partners Against Pain^® Podcast

Partners Against Pain^® brings you a special podcast on the challenges that military personnel are facing in dealing with pain following combat and blast-related injuries.

Click to Listen to the Podcast

Lee Woodruff, a national advocate for injured military personnel, speaks with Dr. Gerald Q. Greenfield, Colonel, U.S. Army (retired) and President-Elect of the American Academy of Pain Management; Army Corporal Shane Parsons, who was seriously injured by a roadside bomb while driving the lead Humvee^® for a routine mission in Iraq with his platoon; and Shane’s mother Cindy Parsons, an emergency room nurse from Fostoria, Ohio, who immediately flew to Germany to be by Shane’s bedside as he recovered from the blast which left him with a traumatic brain injury and forced amputations above the knee to both of his legs.

Click to Listen to the Podcast