What is palliative care? According to the WHO, “palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical,…
Chronic pain is common Being conservative, approximately 10% of the world’s population experience chronic pain. According to a study on pain prevalence in Europe, chronic pain of moderate to severe intensity occurs in 19% of adult Europeans, seriously affecting the quality of their personal, social and working lives. However estimates vary according to country;…
What is pain? Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, which we associate to actual or potential bodily damage. That is, pain is always a subjective experience. People learn and understand “what pain is” according to their experiences in early life. It is possible to experience pain without any bodily damage or even…
Pain management: From a disease-oriented to a mechanism-based strategy Traditionally, the treatment of chronic pain has relied on the particular diagnosis of the illness. Nevertheless, multiple current studies suggest that chronic pain sufferers tend to share a pattern of increased central response to pain, and limited central analgesic regulation. Therefore, it is proposed to…
When drug treatment does not work Patients with chronic pain are usually treated with medication. The basic approach is to start with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and switch to opioid drugs when pain is severe. Sometimes other techniques such as physical therapy or infiltration are also used, and even different interventions are combined. Unfortunately, these…
tDCS: how does it work? tDCS involves the application of a weak, painless electrical current to the brain using electrodes placed on the surface of the head. It is usually applied to the motor cortex. Depending on the properties of the tDCS (such as time, place and number of applications) different effects can be…