Articles: pain-management-methods.
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Some patients with chronic pain who are intolerant of or refractory to treatment with systemic analgesics may benefit from intrathecal therapy. Ziconotide is the first nonopioid analgesic approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for intrathecal administration. Several randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of ziconotide. ⋯ Efficacy can be assessed by an evaluation of changes in pain, functionality, and quality of life. Cognitive adverse events may be subtle; therefore, it is important that health care professionals not only monitor patients for signs and symptoms of cognitive adverse events, but also teach family members how to do the same. Careful patient assessment and monitoring can help optimize the potential benefit from treatment with ziconotide.
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Chronic pain indicates a type of pain that lasts over time and is accompanied by diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. It follows that treatment failures are common and patients roam from doctor to doctor in search of an effective care program. So there is an urgent need for long-acting and effective therapeutics to alleviate symptoms of the varied forms of chronic pain. ⋯ Its analgesic effect has been used in clinical practice with satisfactory results. This review provides an introduction of a hypothesis for the mechanism by which BoNT/A eases chronic pain. It also summarizes the clinical therapeutic effects of BoNT/A in different types of chronic pain and its potential prospects.
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The treatment of chronic, non-malignant low-back pain is based on the patients' history and the clinical examination. It can be assumed that half of the cases present with a neuropathic pain component which needs to be treated with antidepressive and antiepileptic drugs instead of "pure" analgesics. Opioids should be considered with extreme caution because of their toxicity. ⋯ Their indication must be considered carefully, especially if the invasive diagnostic intervention has no therapeutic consequences. The interventional procedures should only be used as part of a multimodal approach in patients without any psychological problem. The sole use of interventions supports the purely somatic orientation of many patients and thus leads us in the wrong direction.
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Clinics in perinatology · Sep 2013
ReviewNonpharmacological management of pain during common needle puncture procedures in infants: current research evidence and practical considerations.
All infants undergo painful procedures involving skin puncture as part of routine medical care. Pain from needle puncture procedures is suboptimally managed. ⋯ Adoption of nonpharmacologic pain-relieving interventions into routine clinical practice is feasible and should be a standard of care in the delivery of quality health care for infants. This review summarizes current knowledge about the epidemiology of pain from common needle puncture procedures in infants, the effectiveness of nonpharmacologic interventions, implementation considerations, and unanswered questions for future research.
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Chronic pain is currently under-diagnosed and under-treated, partly because doctors' training in pain management is often inadequate. This situation looks certain to become worse with the rapidly increasing elderly population unless there is a wider adoption of best pain management practice. This paper reviews current knowledge of the development of chronic pain and the multidisciplinary team approach to pain therapy. ⋯ The patient also receives continuity of care, while pain relief is accompanied by improvements in physical functioning, quality of life and emotional stress. Other benefits include decreases in catastrophizing, self-reported patient disability, and depression. Improved training in pain management is clearly needed, starting with the undergraduate medical curriculum, and this review is intended to encourage further study by those who manage patients with chronic pain.