Pain Management is a medical approach that draws on disciplines in science and alternative healing to study the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pain. Pain management programs can employ massage therapy, analgesic medications, physical therapy, and epidural steroid injections, among others to treat back pain. Pain management can be simple or complex, depending on the cause of the pain. An example of pain that is typically less complex would be nerve root irritation from a herniated disc with pain radiating down the leg. This condition can often be alleviated with an epidural steroid injection and physical therapy. Sometimes, however, the pain does not go away.
This can require a wide variety of skills and techniques to treat the pain. The skills and techniques that would treat the pain consists of interventional procedures, medication management, physical therapy or chiropractic therapy, psychological counseling and support, acupuncture and other alternative therapies, and referral to other medical specialists. The treatment of pain is guided by the history of the pain, its intensity, duration, aggravating and relieving conditions, and structures involved in causing the pain. For a structure to cause pain, it must have a nerve supply, be susceptible to injury, and stimulation of the structure should cause pain. Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensation caused by stimulation of the sensory nerve endings. It is a subjective feeling and an individual response to the cause.
Pain is a cardinal symptom of inflammation and is valuable in the diagnosis of many disorders and conditions. Pain can be classified as acute or chronic. Acute pain is complex and is described as an unpleasant experience with an identifiable cause. Strategies are developed based on past experiences with effective and non-effective treatments to meet the patient’s goal for pain management. There are a variety of approaches for decreasing pain in adult and pediatric patients PAIN MANAGEMENT3that are non-pharmacological. These types of strategies are often over-looked but can be effective for alleviating pain when used either alone or in combination with other non-pharmacological or pharmacological measures.
A comprehensive treatment plan should be developed and customized to the needs of the individual patient. The treatment plan should include the types of therapies planned, the goals of treatment, and an explanation of the patient and prescriber roles and responsibilities. Functional rehabilitation helps the patient develop skills to manage the pain. It includes patient education, regular assessment, management of contributing illnesses, and the setting of attainable treatment goals. The latter should consider factors such as the patient’s acceptance of his or her condition, the patient’s motivation to participate in treatment, the patient’s ability to follow through with recommendations, and the available time and resources. Acute pain can be due to surgery, an injury, or a pathophysiological event such as ischemia or embolus. The central nervous system conveys signals from the spinal cord to the brain, then to the nerves, and finally throughout the body.
Acute pain, which is usually sudden and time limited, serves a protective function, warning the body of danger. However, while acute pain often resolves over time with normal healing, unrelieved acute pain can disrupt activities of daily living and transition to chronic pain. Acute pain tends to be easier to assess and treat than chronic pain. Patients can often localize acute pain, describe its quality and character (as sharp, dull, piercing, or cramping, for example), and indicate temporal pattern. Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability in the United States. The annual cost of chronic pain in the United States, including healthcare expenses, lost income, and lost productivity, is estimated to be $100 billion.
Opioid analgesics have been shown to reduce postoperative pain, secondary hyperalgesia, and oral opioid requirements. Intravenous morphine, epidural fentanyl, and epidural morphine have been used in this setting. Multiple studies investigating the role of local anesthetics through various routes for acute postoperative pain have consistently shown benefit, however, many of these studies did not specifically set out to investigate longer term effects on the development of chronic pain. When looking for the best opioid or even natural medicine to relieve acute pain is still an on-going search. Pharmaceuticals and even your own doctor will most likely prescribe an oral opioid to take the acute pain away. Yes, there are many benefits for opioid medicine, but there are also just as many negative side-effects. In research that I found, personally I will stick with a natural way to try to relieve my pain. Opioids can affect your organs negatively, such as organ failure, infected organs, and even cause you to need an organ replacement. There are positive and negative sides to opioids, everyone’s body reacts completely different to each medicine. Therefore, you will usually receive a smaller dose until your body starts to build up a tolerance.
References
- FDA. (2017). FDA Education Blueprint for Health Care Providers. The Basics of Pain Management, 10.Glowacki, D. (2015).
- CN Journals . Effective Pain Management and Improvements in Patients’ Outcomes and Satisfaction, 12.Jungquist, C. R., Vallerand, A. H., Sicoutris, C., Kwon, K. N., & Polomano, R. C. (2017).
- Assessing and Managing Acute Pain: A Call To Action . Assessing and Managing Acute Pain: A Call To Action, 11.Maryniak, K. (2013). Pain Assessment and Management. Pain Assessment and Management, 12.McGreevy, K., Bottros, M. M., & Raja, S. N. (n.d.).
- Preventing chronic pain following acute pain: Risk factors, preventive strategies, and their efficacy. European Journal of Pain Supplements, 12.
