Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Neuropathic pain is a common problem in later life. It remains relatively refractory to treatment and in terms of social consequences may be particularly problematic for older people. ⋯ The study raises important questions concerning the relationship between neuropathic pain, its physical and emotional consequences and social outcomes. The results highlight the importance of viewing neuropathic pain as a social phenomenon in which treatment and management should pay closer attention to the interpersonal and social needs and quality of life outcomes for the spouse or partner and family as well as the patient.
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To measure the prevalence of pain in a community-dwelling population, to gauge the impact of pain on their daily activities, and to describe the measures they used for pain management. ⋯ This study provides an estimate of the prevalence of pain in the Chinese community in Hong Kong. Western medicine as well as Chinese and alternative methods is popular.
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Chronic nonmalignant pain is very disabling and carries a heavy financial strain on the individual and society as a whole. This case describes a woman with tuberous sclerosis, in her fourth pregnancy. ⋯ While data are limited, with increasing use of intrathecal opioids for nonmalignant pain, such patients may be seen more regularly in obstetric clinics. With a multidisciplinary team approach, risks can be minimized and outcome for mother and baby optimized.
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This monograph is intended to clarify the clinical problem of chronic pain in cancer patients. ⋯ The landscape of "cancer pain" is shifting quickly into a chronic pain situation in many instances, thereby blurring previous lines of distinction in treatment strategies most suited for "chronic" versus "malignant" pain. Adopting chronic pain treatment strategies including pharmacologic and other pain control techniques, rehabilitation care, and psychological coping strategies may lead to optimal outcomes. Lastly, as cancer evolves into a chronic illness, with co-morbid conditions, recurrent cancer, and treatment toxicities from repeated antineoplastic therapies, pain management challenges in the oncologic patient continue to increase in complexity.
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OBJECTIVE. Beginning in the late 1990's a marked increase in abuse of OxyContin emerged, which led to the development and establishment of a proactive surveillance program to monitor and characterize abuse, named the Researched Abuse, Diversion and Addiction Related Surveillance (RADARS) System. The main goal of RADARS was to develop proactive, timely and geographically sensitive methods to assess the abuse and diversion of OxyContin, along with a number of other Schedule II and III opioids with the aim of using this information to guide risk reduction interventions. Thus, its major focus was the detection of abuse of OxyContin and other commonly prescribed opioid analgesics at the three-digit ZIP code level across the country utilizing a number of different detection systems. ⋯ The next step in these studies is to develop regionally specific, risk-minimization-strategies, which is the goal of all risk-management programs. If successful, RADARS will serve as a prototype of such programs for any new drug approved that has measurable abuse potential.