Articles: pain-management-methods.
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Chronic pain is a common healthcare problem worldwide that ranks as a predominant reason for consulting a physician, yet effective management of chronic pain remains suboptimal, often resulting in unnecessary suffering and decreased quality of life, lost productivity and excessive healthcare costs. To overcome the challenges associated with the management of chronic pain, increased awareness and both patient and physician education are required. Improving physician knowledge of pain assessment and management guided by recommendations for a comprehensive, multifactorial, personalised treatment approach involving pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches is key to achieving effective pain relief. ⋯ The availability of mechanism-specific analgesics has facilitated improvements in the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain, which may be of neuropathic, muscle, inflammatory, mechanical/compressive or mixed origin. Stepwise escalation of analgesic therapy (paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, mild to strong opioids) according to the World Health Organization's three-step pain ladder remains the standard approach for the selection of treatment for chronic cancer pain, although there is now a greater awareness of the requirements for effective administration of opioids including dose titration, use of short versus long-acting opioids, opioid rotation, management of adverse effects, and ongoing monitoring. Selection of an effective, appropriate, personalized analgesic regimen for patients with chronic pain is achievable and is expected to enhance compliance, overall functioning and quality of life.
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Epigenetic changes are chemical modifications to chromatin that modulate gene activity without altering the DNA sequence. While research on epigenetics has grown exponentially over the past few years, very few studies have investigated epigenetic mechanisms in relation to pain states. However, epigenetic mechanisms are crucial to memory formation that requires similar synaptic plasticity to pain processing, indicating that they may play a key role in the control of pain states. This article reviews the early evidence suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms are engaged after injury and in chronic pain states, and that drugs used clinically to target the epigenetic machinery for the treatment of cancer might be useful for the management of chronic pain.
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Review
Adverse effects associated with non-opioid and opioid treatment in patients with chronic pain.
Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that is associated with many common diseases; this places a major burden on the healthcare system. There are currently numerous analgesic agents available for the treatment of chronic pain. In general, the oral non-opioid analgesic, paracetamol, is recommended for the initial treatment of mild to moderate pain. ⋯ However, treatment with opioids is associated with a number of common adverse effects, including constipation, nausea or vomiting, pruritus, somnolence or cognitive impairment, dry mouth, tolerance or dependence and urinary retention. Although there are multiple strategies in place to manage adverse events that arise from both non-opioid and opioid analgesic therapy, a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the development of specific drug-related adverse effects is required along with proper prescribing practices and adequate physician/patient education. Balanced against the adverse effects of pain management medications, there is a need to be mindful of the widespread, often serious, adverse consequences of poorly managed pain itself.
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The mechanisms involved in the development of chronic pain are varied and complex. Pain processes are plastic and unrelieved pain may lead to changes in the neural structure involved in pain generation. Nociceptive pain announces the presence of a potentially damaging stimulus that occurs when noxious stimuli activate primary afferent neurons. ⋯ Response to drug treatment shows significant interindividual variability and can lead to side effects. The neurobiological mechanisms that cause pain may account for the different types of pain observed. Identification of these mechanisms may allow us to move from an empirical therapeutic approach to one that it is specifically targeted at the particular mechanisms of the type of pain experienced by an individual patient.
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Chronic pain is a widespread public health issue that has many effects on physical, emotional and cognitive functions. An estimated 10-55% of all adults are thought to have chronic pain. Chronic pain is a multifactorial condition, caused by the complex interplay of nociceptive, neuropathic or mixed pathogenic mechanisms. ⋯ Adequate assessment of pain, using validated tools, is an essential prerequisite of successful pain management. Unidimensional scales are useful for the measurement of pain intensity, while multidimensional scales measure both pain intensity and the extent to which pain interferes with life activity and emotional functioning. Patients should be reassessed and followed up in order to monitor progress and measure improvements in pain.