Articles: chronic.
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Chronic pain is a complex experience that may change the life of the patient totally. Being influenced by numerous factors, communication between the physician and the patient on such a complex experience is not always easy. ⋯ Our results showed that the new method is appropriate to evaluate the intensity of pain in patients with chronic pain, but no to explore the patient's psychological state. The patients' assessment showed clearly that they preferred the dolorimeter to evaluate their pain intensity while they preferred a verbal scale (Profile of Mood States) to describe their mood state.
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This epidemiological questionnaire-study of 362 patients suffering from chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders showed the following results: Most musculoskeletal pain syndromes are located in the head and back areas (57.3%). Patients who seek treatment in an orthopedic pain clinic suffer from at least moderate pain according to the verbal rating scale and from pain equal too or more than 50 on to the numeric rating scale. For most patients (51.9%) the duration of the pain has been between 1 and 10 years. ⋯ Most patients with chronic pain consult 2 to 6 doctors. For typical orthopedic pain syndromes most patients consult an orthopedist. Patients with chronic headaches consult an orthopedic specialist about as frequently as neurologist or internist specialist.
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In the past the view has often been expressed that children are less sensitive to pain than adults as a result of the assumption that their nervous system is not as well developed. According to this theory, newborns were not supposed to feel pain at all, and for this reason minor surgery was often performed with inadequate anesthesia. Evidence in the more recent literature and the regular choice of "pain in children" as a topic for congresses exemplify the more and more widespread belief that children of all ages can feel pain and, relative to their developmental stage, suffer accordingly. ⋯ As cognition develops further, the patient's own concept of health and sickness changes, as does the ability to express feelings of pain. In the pathogenesis of pain in children, the dominant types are nociceptor pain (e.g., as a result of trauma or infection) and pain resulting from malfunction (e.g., physical malposition, migraine), whereas nervous pain occurs less frequently. Pediatricians should pay particular attention to the treatment of acute and chronic pain in children.
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During the 1960s, it was observed that the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine was effective in the treatment of neuralgia, myalgia, and pain in carcinoma. Similarly, in other studies, clomipramine was also found to have an analgesic effect. The sedative antidepressant amitriptyline has proved effective in migraine prophylaxis, chronic tension headache, and psychogenic musculoskeletal and neuralgic facial pain. ⋯ The remaining tricyclic and the tetracyclic antidepressants have not been sufficiently well evaluated. This is also true of monoamine oxidase inhibitors, of which individual reports to date suggest are probably also effective as analgesics. A scientific investigation into the possible differences in the effectiveness of various antidepressants in specific chronic pain conditions is an important task for the future.
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Tursky's pain perception profile [16] has been revised and adapted for use in German-speaking conditions, and this new modification is presented. It integrates six different methods of clinical and experimental methods of clinical and experimental pain measurement, which are intended to meet the enhanced demands put forward in pain research for multivariate measurement of pain by a variety of methods. ⋯ The results document the many aspects of chronic pain and the necessity for multimodal measurement. In addition, they supply a means of achieving a better pain-related classification of pain patients on an experimental basis.