Current pain and headache reports
-
Recent advances in the development and administration of chemotherapy for malignant diseases have been rewarded with prolonged survival rates. The cost of progress has come at a price and the nervous system is frequently the target of chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity. Unlike more immediate toxicities that effect the gastrointestinal tract and bone marrow, chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity is frequently delayed in onset and may progress over time. ⋯ Each agent exhibits a spectrum of toxic effects unique to its mechanism of toxic injury, and recent study in this field has yielded clearer ideas on how to mitigate injury. Combined with the call for a greater recognition of the potentially devastating ramifications of CIPN on quality of life, basic and clinical researchers have begun to investigate therapy to prevent neurotoxic injury. Preliminary studies have shown promise for some agents including glutamine, glutathione, vitamin E, acetyl-L-carnitine, calcium, and magnesium infusions, but final recommendations await prospective confirmatory studies.
-
Inadequately managed cancer pain continues to be a significant problem despite increased awareness, improved knowledge and understanding of pain pathophysiology, and standardized treatment guidelines of this distressing and debilitating symptom complex. Small subsets of patients who are refractory to optimal medical management because of drug toxicity or unsatisfactory analgesia may be candidates for exteriorized or implantable intrathecal drug delivery systems. ⋯ With adjuncts such as local anesthetics and clonidine, intrathecal therapy also allows for broader therapeutic options in the most difficult of cases. In general, intrathecal therapy is underused despite evidence of its efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
-
Curr Pain Headache Rep · Aug 2006
ReviewChronic paroxysmal hemicrania: from the index patient to the disease.
The first patient with chronic paroxysmal hemicrania (CPH), a 41-year-old woman, first seen in 1961, was followed until an adequate treatment was found, 12 years later. Clinically, attack frequency and duration differed widely from the general pattern of cluster headache. Ocular variables, such as intraocular pressure and corneal indentation pulse amplitudes, also differed in our case (clear symptomatic side increment during attacks) and cluster headache. ⋯ Indomethacin was highly effective in our case, while "cluster headache drugs," such as ergotamine/sumatriptan, were ineffective. Indomethacin was inactive in cluster headache. Accordingly, our case seemed to differ decisively from cluster headache: CPH had been discovered.
-
Chronic pain is a costly and prevalent problem. Pain, itself, is a symptom. Pain has received attention in the form of health care policy reform, development of assessment tools, and treatment protocols. ⋯ Many barriers exist in treating chronic pain, especially when treating with opioid analgesics. Pharmacists can help in the assessment and treatment of chronic pain. This article discusses the impact of chronic pain, barriers to care, and the role of the pharmacist in managing chronic opioid therapy.
-
Curr Pain Headache Rep · Aug 2006
ReviewPrimary trochlear headache and other trochlear painful disorders.
The trochlear region is a source of distinct pain that may give rise to specific primary pain disorders (primary trochlear headache), but also modulate other pre-existing headache disorders such as migraine. The sensory innervation of this region, by a branch of the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve, may explain the modulatory influence of the nociceptive afferents of this region over migraine headache. ⋯ We postulate that nociceptive afferents from the inner part of the orbit may sustain the activation of trigeminal neurons, thus sensitizing or exacerbating migraine. Decreasing the possible wind-up induced from this nociceptive afferent stimulation may be effective in controlling headache.