Pain—100 million Americans say they live with it, it is the leading cause of disability and it is still misunderstood by the medical establishment, especially in women and minorities.

Research shows these groups report higher pain severity than men; they suffer more from depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and more of their pain goes unheard and under diagnosed. When doctors do hear their pain, they often make different treatment decisions based on an individual’s demographics. No matter how you slice the data, race and gender are big predictors of how much pain you are in and that difference doesn’t go away, even when you control for socioeconomic factors. KPCC’s Patt Morrison talks with a leading researcher in the field about physician variability decision making and how to close the pain gap.

Guest:

Dr. Carmen Green, Professor of Anesthesiology and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan

Link here to listen to the interview…
http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/02/09/the-pain-gappain-management-disparities-by-race-ge/