Kathmandu Feb. 25: A two-day International Conference on Pain began today at B.P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) at Dharan. The conference is participated by two hundred delegates from six countries. The participants include cancer specialists, eminent medical scientists, senior doctors and nurses.
In his inaugural address Vice-Chancellor of BPKIHS Dr Shekhar Koirala observed that the poorer section of the society possibly accepts pain as a curse and blames it to their fate. He also added that very little data is available from the developing countries regarding the prevalence of pain in the community and Nepal is no exception.
Stressing on the awareness about the problem and management of pain he urged the participants to understand the importance of biopsychosocial models in pain management rather than existing biological model, which has failed to deliver. He also informed the gathering that Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care of BPKIHS in association with Department of Community Medicine has planned a study on incidence of chronic pain in the districts of eastern Nepal. Inclusion of pain as a subject in medical, dental and nursing curriculum has become an absolute necessity and the primary care physicians and nurses must exercise responsibilities in recognising the scope of pain medicine problems he said.
Hoping that the conference would make a beginning to bring about scientific thinking in the field of pain among the health care Dr. Koirala said the deliberations of the conference would undoubtedly initiate thoughts in the minds of the participants regarding the approach to be taken to address the problem of pain in the communities of the developing countries.