Pain overview

One key cause area is access to effective medication to relieve severe physical pain in humans. In most lower-income countries, terminal cancer patients in severe pain cannot obtain strong opioid medications because of overly strict legislation and insufficient training of doctors. We are working to change things, organising events at both the global level (e.g. UN Human Rights Council) and the country level (e.g. recent national conference in Burkina Faso, West Africa). More information here.

We also support efforts to reverse the disastrous policies in the US that, in a misguided attempt to tackle the opioid crisis, have left huge numbers of chronic pain patients unable to access the medications they desperately need, while doing little to help those with drug dependence issues.

We have ambitious plans to promote more compassionate governance in the world - where decision-making is transparent, fact-based and rational, and aims to prevent people and animals from experiencing preventable intense suffering. Find out more about OPIS on our main page. This article about the lack of access to pain relief mentions OPIS and our work.

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