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pain [odyn-]
Odyn- is a prefix meaning pain. An unpleasant sensory & emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage.
3 hierarchichal levels of pain
1) sensory-discriminatory component
- location, intensity, quality
2) motivational-affective component
- depression, anxiety, unhappiness
3) cognitive-evaluative component
- thoughts concerning the cause & significance
Classification:
1) nociceptive pain
a) trauma or burns
- infection or inflammation
- ischemia
- mechanical deformity
- distension
- arthropathies
- rheumatoid arthritis
- osteoarthritis
- gout
- post-traumatic arthropathies
- mechanical neck & back syndromes
b) myalgia (i.e myofascial pain syndromes)
- non-articular inflammatory disorders (e.g. polymyalgia rheumatica)
c) visceral pain
- pain of internal organs & viscera
2) neuropathic pain
a) peripheral nervous system
- postherpetic neuralgia
- trigeminal neuralgia
- painful diabetic polyneuropathy
- post-amputation (phantom limb) pain
b) central nervous system
- post-stroke pain (central pain)
- myelopathic/radiculopathic pain
- multiple sclerosis
- spinal stenosis
- arachnoiditis
- root sleeve fibrosis
c) sympathetic nervous system
- reflex sympathetic dystrophy
- causalgia (complex regional pain syndromes)
3) mixed or idiopathic pathophysiology
a) chronic recurrent headaches
- tension headaches
- migraine headaches
- mixed headaches
b) vasculopathic pain syndromes (painful vasculitis)
4) psychologically-based syndrome
a) somatization disorders
b) hysterical reaction
c) negative emotions may increase itching & pain [9]
5) acute pain: pain lasting < one month
6) subacute pain: pain lasting from 1-3 months
7) chronic pain: pain lasting > 3 months
Epidemiology:
- in long-term care facilities pain correlates with
- fractures
- pressure ulcers
- falls in the elderly
- sleeping disorders
- cancer
- unstable health
- depression
- number of drugs
- female gender
- 49% of long-term care residents experience pain [16]
History: (pain characteristics)
1) temporal
a) acute, recurrent or chronic
b) onset & duration
c) course & daily variation, including breakthrough pain
2) intensity (average, worst, least, "right now")
3) topography (focal, multifocal, referred, superficial or deep)
4) quality
a) aching, throbbing, stabbing, burning
b) familiar or unfamiliar pain
5) exacerbating & relieving factors
- volitional or nonvolitional
6) response to treatment [1]
Clinical manifestations:
1) facial expressions, grimmacing, tears, crying
2) vocalizations
a) moaning, groaning
b) outbusrts
c) explicit expressions of pain
3) noisy breathing
4) body language
a) spliting or restricted movement
b) rigid or tense body posture
c) rocking or pacing
d) guarding
5) social features
a) social withdrawal
b) lability
c) resistance to interventions
d) aggression, combativeness
6) loss of appetite, refusal of food
7) change in sleep patterns
8) confusion, irritability, delirium [12]
9) nausea & constipation from opiate use
* observing behavioral manifestations of pain is the primary mode of pain assessment in patients with dementia [11]
Management:
1) ABCDE for pain assessment & management [4]
a) Ask about pain regularly. Assess pain systematically.
b) Believe the patient & family in their reports of pain & what relieves it
c) Choose pain control options appropriate for the patient, family & setting
d) Deliver interventions in a timely, logical & coordinated fashion
e) Empower patients & their families. Enable them to control their course to the greatest possible extent
2) principles
a) individualize management
- despite ABCDE recommendations, GRS11 recommends obtaining a medical interpeter over using family to assess patient's pain concerns if patient not fluent in english [11]
b) use simplest approach
c) identify & treat source of pain
d) recognize & treat emotional & cognitive components [6]
e) pain is most often undertreated, not overtreated
f) consider combined pharmacologic & non-pharmacologic therapy
g) analgesia
1] all analgesic regimens should include a nonopioid drug (NSAID, acetaminophen) unless contraindicated, even if pain is intense enough to require opiate
2] <= 3 days of opiate therapy for severe pain generally adequate
3] avoid > 1 week of opiate therapy for acute pain
2] consider analgesic adjuvant
h) anticipate adverse effects
i) address patient concerns
- physical vs psychologic dependence
j) avoid placebos
3) elderly
a) acetaminophen should be the initial drug treatment for persistent particularly musculoskeletal pain
b) nonselective NSAIDs & COX-2 selective inhibitors may be considered 'with caution' for patients in whom other (safer) therapies have failed
c) salsalate may be less nephrotoxic & have less anti-platelet activity than other NSAIDs [11] (evidence supporting the is sparse) [11]
d) patients with fibromyalgia or neuropathic pain are candidates for adjuvant analgesics
e) breakthrough pain should be anticipated with opioid use; use short-acting, immediate-release opioids
- start bowel regimen with opioid (Senna)
f) in nursing home, residents age > 95 years, cognitively impaired or black or Asian race less likely to receive prescription analgesics [11]
4) investigational
- cold analgesia can block pain signaling
Related
allodynia
angina
assessment of pain; assessment of pain in patients with dementia
central pain syndrome
familial pain syndrome
indifference to pain
insensitivity to pain
neurochemical mediators of pain
pain & temperature sensation
pain intensity scale
pain management in palliative care
pain threshold level
RICED
somatoform pain disorder (psychogenic pain, psychalgia)
World Health Organization (WHO) pain ladder
Specific
abdominal pain
abdominal wall pain
acute pain
back pain
breakthrough pain (BTP)
buttock pain; pygalgia
cancer pain
cheilodynia
chest pain
chronic pain
coccygodynia
deafferentation pain
dysmenorrhea (menstrual pain)
earache; otalgia
eye pain (ocular pain, orbital pain)
facial pain
headache
hip pain
intractable pain
ischemic pain
jaw pain
limb pain
musculoskeletal pain
neck pain; cervicalgia
nociceptive pain
odynophagia (swallowing pain)
oral pain
pelvic pain
postoperative pain
procedural pain
radicular pain
rectal pain (anorectal pain, proctalgia)
referred pain
respiratory pain
sacroliac pain
scrotal pain/mass (testicular pain, testicular torsion)
shoulder pain
spinal pain
stinging pain
thumb pain
toothache (tooth pain, dentalgia, odontalgia, odontodynia, dentagra)
vaginal pain
vulvodynia; vulvar pain; vulvar burning; vulvar itching
General
sign/symptom
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