Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2004
Case ReportsModafinil for the treatment of pain-associated fatigue: review and case report.
Fatigue is a symptom that is frequently found in chronic pain patients with low back pain and/or neck pain. At the present time, no specific psychopharmacological treatment for this problem has been identified. Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting agent that the FDA has approved for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy. ⋯ This case is described. It is the first such case report in the literature. The significance of this finding to the treatment of pain-associated fatigue is discussed.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2003
Pain and palliative care in The Cochrane Library: Issue Number 3 for 2002.
The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews is published quarterly. Six of the 62 new reviews published in Issue 4 for 2001 in February 2002 are relevant to pain and palliative care. Annotated bibliographies for those nine reviews are provided.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2003
Pain and palliative care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Asia.
Millions of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in Asia need access to palliative care as part of a comprehensive response to their support needs. There are many causes of pain in HIV/AIDS, and its prevalence is as high if not higher than in cancer, but it is frequently undertreated. ⋯ These include few care and support services, lack of recognition and acknowledgement of pain in HIV/AIDS by health care professionals, widespread stigma and discrimination especially towards vulnerable groups such as injecting drug users, government regulatory mechanisms which make access to opioids even more difficult for the care services which have developed and a lack of understanding of or advocacy for pain relief and palliative care in the literature on HIV/AIDS care and support. During the growth of palliative care in Asia, there is opportunity for advocates of palliative care and care for PLHA to collaborate to influence national policy.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2003
Palliative care in developing countries: why research is needed.
Contemporary medical knowledge is sufficient to control the suffering of most of the millions of terminally patients in the world if applied appropriately. However, palliative care is still unavailable to most patients in developing countries. Effective models of palliative care delivery that have been tested in developed countries seldom apply to the developing world where poverty, extended families, and insufficient health infrastructure require the adaptation of such care to local cultures and circumstances. ⋯ Palliative care research shares most of the obstacles common to health research in the developing world. Additional obstacles include a lack of consideration of palliative care as part of cancer control strategies and the low political acceptability of such care because it involves the use of opioid analgesics. Coordinated research efforts through active networking and common protocols would increase the visibility of the discipline, provide answers relevant to the local contexts, and assist in expanding palliative care services across the developing world.