Pain

Stop the Increased Pain Signalling of Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is characterised by abnormal hypersensitivity to stimuli and nociceptive responses to non-noxious stimuli as a direct consequence of a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system and can result in a substantial healthcare burden and frequent comorbidities. Pregabalin is a gabapentinoid licensed for the treatment of neuropathic pain, particularly that of painful diabetic neuropathy and postherpetic neuralgia.

Modern Medicine – Issue 6 2023

Chronic Pain: Complexities in adolescents and young adults

Adolescents and young adults experience chronic pain at similar rates to adults. Chronic pain in this group is associated with a high prevalence of adverse childhood experiences, mental health difficulties and neurodiversity. Recovery from persistent pain is the aim of developmentally sensitive therapy. Therapy includes validating the young person’s pain experience and needs-based interventions that focus on the mind–body connection and security in interpersonal relationships.

Modern Medicine – Issue 6 2022

Managing Pain in Patients
with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who are responding to disease-modifying drug therapy but continue to complain of pain – in joints and elsewhere – present a management challenge. Although biomedical factors may play the major role in the pain experienced by such patients, consideration of the psychological and social dimensions is essential. A sociopsycho-biomedical framework is useful for patient assessment and for identifying other, nondrug, therapeutic pathways.

Modern Medicine – Issue 1 2020

Safely Managing Chronic Noncancer Pain in General Practice

Pain is ubiquitous, experienced by every person at some time. Acute pain is a symptom, and treatment is usually short term and medically focused. Acute pain may progress in some cases to chronic persistent pain. Chronic pain has many possible causes, including cancer, congenital and degenerative diseases, trauma and surgery. Cancer pain differs clinically from chronic noncancer pain and is not further discussed here.

Modern Medicine – April/May 2019

Tapentadol’s Strong Analgesic Properties

Pain is a disorder that everyone experiences and is often difficult to treat. Current drug treatment options for management of pain include opioids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and paracetamol. Tapentadol is a novel, next generation, centrally acting analgesic with dual mechanism of action that offers analgesic efficacy that is similar to that provided by a pure MOR agonist, but with an improved side-effect profile.

Modern Medicine – Dec/Jan 2019

Acute and Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain Pharmacological Management

Musculoskeletal pain is common and has significant consequences for affected patients and society as a whole. Musculoskeletal pain is not purely nociceptive; peripheral inflammation and central sensitisation processes, as well as neuropathic components, contribute. Management of patients with these conditions should be multimodal and multidisciplinary and follow principles of chronic disease management aiming for improved function. Nonopioid analgesics play an important role in the pharmacological management of patients. Opioids should be used with caution and only after careful consideration in patients with musculoskeletal pain. Adjuvants such as anticonvulsants and antidepressants may play a previously underestimated role in the management of patients with musculoskeletal pain.

Modern Medicine – Oct/Nov 2018

Tapentadol, the Only MOR-NRI for Broad Spectrum Pain Relief

Tapentadol is the first centrally acting analgesic that combines two mechanisms of action, mμ-opioid receptor agonism and noradrenaline reuptake inhibition (MOR–NRI), in a single molecule.1 The synergistic interactions between the two mechanisms provide inhibition of ascending pain signals through MOR agonism and enhancement of descending pain inhibition through NRI. The result is broad efficacy across nociceptive, neuropathic and mixed pain.

Modern Medicine – Aug/Sept 2018