Der Schmerz
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Review Comparative Study
[Cancer pain management. Basic therapy and treatment of breakthrough pain].
Cancer pain imposes a great burden on patients and results in considerable constraints limiting their quality of life. The basic treatment for chronic pain consists in oral administration of long-acting preparations of various analgesic agents according to a set schedule. ⋯ Rapid-onset and short-acting preparations of highly potent opioids are available for the management of these attacks. To choose the correct analgesic agent, it is essential to take a comprehensive medical history and be aware of the different forms of pain present.
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Review Historical Article
[Milk of paradise? Opium and opiates in nineteenth and twentieth century literature].
One cannot have an idea of this multifaceted theme without its medical and cultural-historical background. After a history of several thousand years as a remedy and consumer good, around 1800 this poppy drug was in the focus of public attention due to Brownianism, at first as an often self-prescribed unspecific remedy against physical and mental pain. ⋯ However, it was the publication of Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821/1822) which made it a subject of international debate in accordance with the programmatic statements of writers of that epoque and corresponding to the antibourgeois attitude of these men. It became a motif of a counter-world experience and a subject and cause of lyric-subjective reflection as well as a possible premise of poetic creativity.