Associations to pain and analgesics in Indian pain patients and health workers.

Aim: This study explores the attitudes toward analgesic therapy among persistent pain patients and health workers in palliative care in India.

Methods: Free word association was used and quantitative content analysis was performed.

Results: A total of 59 patients and 28 health workers participated.

Views and attitudes towards sexual functioning in men living with spinal cord injury in kerala, South India.

Context: Sexual dysfunction is a major concern for Indian men living with a spinal cord injury. Few first-hand reports exist about the experience of living with an altered sense of sexual identity and the inability to express sexual concerns.

Aims: In this qualitative study, the authors explore views and attitudes towards sexual functioning in men living with a spinal cord injury in Kerala, India.

Venu's Story.

This is the story of a man in India who is among millions denied access to pain relief all over the developing world. He was in agonizing pain and pleaded to a doctor for pain relief, adding that he had not slept for several days. Not only was pain relief denied to him, but he was also insulted by a doctor with the words, "What do you want me to do? Sing a lullaby and rock you to sleep?" Even after a year, the patient says that he cannot help being angry with that doctor and cannot help feeling like wanting to stab him with a knife.

Where is the evidence for pain, suffering, and relief-can narrative help fill the void?

Eighty percent of global population has no access to pain relief or to palliative care. International organizations have repeatedly pointed out that access to pain relief and palliative care are basic human rights. Ignorance, callous indifference, and barriers to availability of essential medicines are among the reasons for such needless pain.

India: opioid availability. An update.

In India, a million people with cancer and an unknown number of people with other incurable and disabling diseases, need opioids for pain relief. Only about 0.4% of the population in need have access to them.