B PHARMACY Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Postherpetic Neuralgia, Aids, Neuropathic Pain
Document Summary
Pain management: identify characteristics of the types of pain: nociceptive, inflammatory, neuropathic, and functional, explain the mechanisms involved in pain transmission. Pain is an unpleasant subjective experience that is the net effect of a complex interaction of the ascending and descending nervous systems involving biochemical, physiologic, psychological, and neocortical processes. Following initial assessment of pain, reassessment should be done as needed based on medication choice and the clinical situation. Effective treatment involves an evaluation of the cause, duration, and intensity of the pain and selection of an appropriate treatment modality for the pain situation. Whenever possible, the least potent oral analgesic should be selected. Equianalgesic doses should be used when converting from one opioid to another. Pain is defined by the international association for the study of pain (iasp) as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.