Description:

According to the International Pain Studies Association, pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.

 

Classification

*According to duration

Acute pain: postoperative and trauma pain

Chronic pain: 3-6 month long term cancer pain, neuropathic pain, etc.

 

*According to etiology

Cancer pain

Arthritic pain

Postherpetic neuralgia

Postoperative pain

Sickle cell anemia linked to pain et al.

 

*According to mechanism

Nociceptive Pain

Somatic Pain: Sudden, sharp, good localized; trauma, fracture, dislocation

Visceral Pain: blunt, slow character. Originates in the internal organs.Difficult to localize

Sympathetic Pain: burning sensation, is characterized by trophic disorders of the extremities.

Neuropathic pain: disc herniation, diabetic neuropathy,

Psychogenic Pain

 

* According to the pain area

Headache

Neck

Neck pain

Low back pain

Pelvic pain

 

Pain Assessment:

Pain is a highly subjective perception, personal, cultural, ethnic, and is influenced by psychological factors. The meter to the various methods have been developed:

* Uni-dimensional methods

Catagory scale:  paient is asked to describe the pain severity.

Numerical scale (NRS-Numerical rating scale): Patient is asked to scale pain between 0-10 or 0-100

Visual analogue scale (VAS):Patient is asked to mark on a 10cm line, where one end expresses no pain and the other end expresses excruciating pain.

* Multidimensional methods: Is a method to evaluate sensory,affective and the severity of the pain . As an example,the McGill Pain Questionnaire, West Haven Pain Inquiry Form,can be accepted as a Short pain inquiry form.

 

Treatment: the purpose of treatment, must be the priority of pain treatment

 

Treatment methods:

* Pharmacological approaches: painkillers

* Physical methods: hot application, cold application, massage, pressure and vibration, exercise, change positions, immobilization

* Surgical methods

* Psychosocial methods: Cognitive and behavioral approaches, relaxation, hypnosis, cognitive reflection and shaping, patient education, psychotherapy