My mother is in agony after many years of severe back pain but the doctors just won't give her strong enough medications. They're afraid she'll become addicted, she says. Why is it so hard to get proper pain medications?

Treating chronic, long-term pain isn't easy. It's not like a toothache or broken bone, where you can pinpoint the pain and relieve it. Chronic pain is usually not as defined.

Severe pain, for acute pain, like the broken bone, may be relieved by prescription medications or opioids (narcotics, controlled drugs). They're taken as needed for a short period of time. But with chronic pain, it's a continual pain relief that's needed and there is often a great fear that people who take opioids over a long period can and may become addicted to the medication, leading to its misuse and abuse.

If you've not tried going to a pain clinic, that might be the next step for you to investigate. No-one should be living in constant, severe pain.