Dr Gerald M Sacks Believes That the Patients Must Be Asked About the Quantity of Pain and Its Intensity

Dr Gerald M Sacks, an anesthesiologist, provides pain relief during and after an operation and treats acute and long-standing pain problems. He addresses the issues of opioid dependency and believes that patients continue to take these medicines far beyond the period of which time their pain was occurring.

Dr Sacks, the Director of Pain Management at the Pain Institute of Santa Monica, completed a fellowship in pain management at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. His research interests include neuropathic pain, psychosocial issues as related to pain perception, and musculoskeletal, mechanical aspects of pain perception.

Dr Gerald M Sacks has lectured nationally and internationally on pain management, and has served as an invited speaker at many CME and grand round presentations throughout the United States. He concludes that everyone should be comfortable discussing the adverse effects of any medications prescribed.

Considering OIC a normal part of each patient’s visit, Dr Sacks shares that the patients must be asked about the quantity of pain, its intensity, how often it occurs, and what they are doing to increase their pain, whether pharmacologically, using physical therapy modalities or lifestyle changes.

Being the Managing Director at Pain Institute of Santa Monica, Dr Gerald M Sacks emphasizes approaching and openly communicating the management of Opioid-Induced Constipation with patients. The practitioners are not comfortable discussing it with their patients. According to him, it is a general discomfort in thinking about and discussing normal bowel function.