The American Pain Society began working on the issue of pain management in 1995 and later partnered with the American Academy of Pain Medicine to set up guidelines for opioid use when it comes to treating those with chronic pain. According to an online post, the past 15 years have produced an attitude change from the medical community, which once thought that only those with terminal illnesses or cancer should be treated for pain due to drug addiction worries.

In 1999, the Veterans Affairs Department released a statement that said the main reason patients consult with their doctor is because of pain and they launched the campaign "Pain is the Fifth Vital Sign". You now often see the chart with the 1 to 10 scale asking you to rate your pain when you go into your doctor’s office. Hospitals are supposed to measure your pain using a similar method.

There have been various studies done at the VA that have not shown any advancement in pain management due to the above mentioned policy. OxyContin was introduced by the FDA in 1995 and prescriptions for it have skyrocketed from over 800,000 in 1997 to nearly 6.2 million back in 2002, according to the FDA’s statistics.

Pushing pain as the fifth sign when checking patients’ vitals began in the 90s by the American Pain Society and other corporate members such as Purdue, which makes OxyContin, and Abbott, Vicodin’s maker.

Our country now has a huge epidemic of opioid drug addictions and prescription drug overdose fatalities. Physicians are concerned with managing pain effectively while working towards decreasing the number of patients who become addicted to these painkillers.