Pain Management Today
December 18, 2007
Pain management today suffers from the terrible fact that most of the available drugs on the market are not really suitable for long term use. Unfortunately most pain relief drugs are really only meant to solve a short term pain problem rather than treating chronic pain ongoing basis.
Acute Pain & Chronic Pain
There are two main types of pain, acute pain and chronic pain, and while both are extremely annoying and have obvious similarities there are important differences. Gaining an understanding of the pain from which you are suffering will help you to combat the problem and, hopefully, allow yourself to enjoy some of the things in life that you may have been missing since you first started suffering from pain.
Acute pain management is relatively easy when compared to the treatment of chronic pain. Acute pain is that sensation felt following a trauma to the body. In all but the most dramatic cases this type of pain is suitable for the use of painkillers (pain relief medication). Unfortunately, in extreme cases, severe acute pain can lead a person to lose consciousness. In such cases, such as during post-operative care, a patient may be prescribed very strong pain relief such as morphine.
Chronic pain is far more difficult to treat as it is usually difficult to identify the root cause of it. To further complicate matters pain can often be deferred, that is pain is felt in a different place to where is actually originates, and this can make pain management rather difficult. Sadly chronic pain is usually a sustained and continued symptom of illness.
Modern Pain Management
Not so long ago gaining pain relief when suffering from a migraine headache was rather a hit or miss affair. Sometimes the drugs worked and at other times they failed. Today, after a great deal of research, there is an excellent choice of drugs which have been specifically designed to offer pain relief from migraines.
I had the most unfortunate experience only a few months ago when I suddenly felt very ill. My tummy was extremely painful, to the point where I was finding it almost impossible to get about. I also experienced unusual sight disturbances so I immediately thought of migraine, but, confusingly I did not have a headache. However, only a short time later I had the world’s worst headache ever, I thought I was seriously, and even fatally, ill so I called my family physician who said it was a typical migraine. What? I thought, migraines are just headaches aren’t they? Well let’s just say the level of pain was so bad that I had not realized how painful they could be.
Happily I have only had hints of a migraine since then. I have not yet found the trigger for them but as soon as I feel the onset of the symptoms I take one tiny little wafer that dissolves immediately on my tongue and gives me almost instant relief from the symptoms. So, for me, pain management for migraines is excellent. If you too suffer from these types of headache and you have not visited your doctor for a long time pay him a visit soon. He will be able to prescribe you some of the most recent drugs which have only been available for a short time.
While many drugs are removed from the market after research has shown them to cause problems there are always new drugs coming onto the market that have been specifically designed to effect specific types of pain. New discoveries and medical advances occur regularly leading to new developments in pain management so do not be afraid to visit your doctor or physician for advice, he/she will be only too glad to help.
This article was written by Francis Kennedy who writes about a broad range of topics for the A-Z of web site.