Pain Relief as an Integral Part of the Palliative Care

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Palliative therapy represents active care for patients whose illness has such nature that is not responding to the curative treatment. The palliative care aims to provide comfort and prevention from the suffering of the patients at the end of their life. Treatment of the pain presents an important integral part of palliative care.AIM:This article aims to discuss and answer to some of the analgesic regimes and therapeutic dilemmas.RESULTS:Pain control, in addition to the other treatments such as alleviation of psychological, sociological and spiritual problems, has a priority. The proper pain management can achieve a better quality of life for the patients and their families.CONCLUSION:It can be concluded that because of the different origin of the pain, the use of analgesic therapy should be individualised and adapted to the real need of every person. Finally, only a good organisation and institutionalisation of the palliative care in one society could permit better prevention of suffering at the end of the life.

Multimodal Pain Management in the Setting of Palliative Care

“…The oral description of the presence of pain is insufficient to express the real patients' suffering. It is more visible by other objective, autonomic and behavioral sights that are expressed through mimics, sweating, tears, or with changes in vital parameters in the person [4].…”

“…The reasons for that are multi-factorial. One of the reasons is a lack of communication and difficulties between the patients and the palliative care providers; the second is unrecognized and misunderstood presence of pain; the third is the mixture of different symptoms or other reasons [4]. Due to these reasons, it is necessary to improve the knowledge about the pathogenesis of pain and the modern approaches to the management of pain relief.…”

“No thanks, I don’t want to see snakes again”: a qualitative study of pain management versus preservation of cognition in palliative care patients

“…Pain management has emerged as a top priority within palliative populations [1][2][3][4][5]. Managing pain and symptoms is vital in chronic illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, where 80 and 67% of patients, respectively, experience moderate to severe pain [6].…”

Factors related to pain management adequacy in patients receiving palliative care: data from a tertiary hospital in Indonesia

“…3 Pain should be managed adequately because otherwise, it will reduce the quality of life. 4 Until now, pain management used the World Health Organization (WHO) analgesic ladder, which is based on pain intensity. 5,6 Pain intensity may vary among patients with a similar disease entity or severity since pain is a subjective feeling.…”

“…Therefore, pain medication must be administered in a unique way for every patient. 4,7 Sometimes patients with mild-to-moderate pain may need opioids, 8 but the physician should be cautious about side effects such as gastrointestinal and neurological problems. 9,10 There have been numerous studies evaluating the adequacy of pain management in cancer cases; meanwhile, there are limited studies assessing in both cancer and non-cancer patients.…”