China's first center to treat pain has opened at Shanghai's Quyang Hospital, combining western and traditional Chinese therapies for pain management and rehabilitation.

Doctors said pain management is a service that patients need desperately. Pain has been classified as a disease instead of a symptom by the World Health Organization.

The new center, which is also the pain research and development center of Jiao Tong University's Medical School, combines departments of anesthesia, rehabilitation, acupuncture and massage to give a comprehensive treatment for each patient's situation and to discover the cause.

"Our main purpose is to control patients' acute pain during birth, injuries and diseases, and also chronic pain due to problems like degenerative disorders and chronic diseases," said Dr Lou Qiang, director of the western and TCM pain and rehabilitation center.

"Moreover, we are responsible for detecting the real cause of pain with unconfirmed diseases or misdiagnosis. About three to five percent of patients are found to have diseases such as cancer and organ problems that previous doctors failed to detect."

About half of hospital patients see a doctor with pain. "Chinese professionals started pain treatment in late 1970s, when doctors began to realize the importance of pain management to a patient's life quality and disease treatment," said Lou.

"Though most city-based hospitals have set up pain departments in recent years, their main treatment methods are only painkillers and injections. Patient education also lags behind, so most people only go to hospital when the pain has seriously impacted their normal life and social activities."

(Shanghai Daily June 28, 2007)