Management of Chronic Pain

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Management of Chronic Pain

Recent advances in the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms involved in the transmission and modulation of noxious impulses have significantly extended the range of assessment tools and treatments clinicians offer to patients with pain. The majority of medical pain specialists in the UK are anaesthetists. Historically, anaesthetists have been responsible for the relief of pain in the perioperative period and have developed skills in percutaneous neural blockade. This expertise, developed originally with local anaesthetics, was then extended to neurolytic agents. Initially, pain clinics started as nerve-blocking clinics and most pain management clinics continue to be directed by anaesthetists who now have access to a formal training programme supervised by the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, and specialist recognition. However, with increasing awareness of the complexity of the pain experience, there has been recognition that other healthcare professionals have a significant role in the management of patients with chronic pain. A multidisciplinary approach involving anaesthetists, other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurse specialists, and other medical practitioners, is the preferred management model for people with pain. Evidence-based practice is now firmly established in clinical decision-making, particularly in formulating guidelines and consensus documents. Pain management clinics are available in most hospitals in the United Kingdom, with local variation in the services offered. Some offer specialist clinics for specific conditions (e.g. pelvic pain clinic, paediatric pain clinic) or treatments (e.g. spinal cord stimulators).

Current health trends are supporting the delivery of pain management services in primary care and in the community, because many patients can be managed in a primary care setting without needing to be referred to hospital. There is an increasing trend to involve the patient as an active participant of treatment and to include self-management strategies as part of the management plan.

DEFINITIONS OF PAIN AND RELATED TERMS

Pain: ‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage’ (The International Association for the Study of Pain, http://www.iasp-pain.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Pain_Definitions). This definition emphasizes that pain is not only a physical sensation but also a subjective psychological event. It accepts that pain may occur in spite of negative physical findings and investigations. Pain has sensory, cognitive and motivational-affective dimensions and has been described as a biopsychosocial experience, as illustrated in Figure 46.1. This must be taken into account when assessing and planning a treatment strategy for the patient with pain.

FIGURE 46.1 An illustration of pain as a biopsychosocial phenomenon.

Acute pain: pain associated with acute injury (including surgery) or disease.

Chronic or persistent pain: pain that either occurs in disease processes in which healing does not take place or persists beyond the expected time of healing – arbitrarily 3 months.

Pain management: a multidisciplinary approach to the assessment and treatment of patients with (acute and chronic) pain.

Pain management programme: a cognitive-behavioural programme for patients with persistent pain and disability.

Pain medicine: the diagnostic and therapeutic activities of medical practitioners.

Chronic pain syndrome: a term used to describe a constellation of pain and other symptoms of complex aetiology associated with Sternbach’s 6 Ds:

Dramatization of complaints

Chronic pain syndrome can adversely affect the patient in various ways, including depressed mood, fatigue, reduced activity and libido, excessive use of drugs and alcohol, dependent behaviour and disability out of proportion to impairment. It does not respond to the medical model of care and is best managed with a multidisciplinary approach.

THE PARADIGM OF PAIN

Pain management concerns postoperative, acute and chronic pain and cancer-related symptom control in children and adults. A joint report of the College of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Surgeons of England highlighted the need to improve standards of postoperative pain management and many hospitals have established acute pain teams. However, many hospitalized patients suffer from acute non-postoperative pain. This may be caused by trauma, burns or acutely painful medical conditions (e.g. cardiac pain, osteoporotic vertebral collapse). Some medical conditions may cause recurrent acute painful episodes such as sickle-cell crisis or acute exacerbations of chronic pancreatitis. Unrelieved acute pain may lead to chronic pain. Chronic pain is a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon and a single pathophysiological explanation is not available for many chronic nonmalignant pain states. Palliative care services may refer cancer-related pain problems to the anaesthetist for management as a hospital inpatient, an outpatient, in a hospice or in the home. There are many common areas within the management of acute and chronic pain, and pain is increasingly viewed as a continuum rather than two separate entities, with subsequent merging of management techniques and staff.

Postoperative, acute, recurrent, persistent and cancer-related pain occurs in children. Difficulties in pain assessment and unsubstantiated fears and myths regarding pain and its treatment in children have led to suboptimal management. Recommendations for the management of pain in children have been published.

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CHRONIC PAIN

The prevalence of chronic pain within the general population has proved difficult to estimate because of variations in the populations studied, the methods used to collect data and the criteria used to define chronic pain. Recent data have suggested that the prevalence of chronic pain in the UK is 13%, i.e. about 1 in 7 of the population. Chronic pain is the presenting complaint in 22% of primary care consultations and is estimated to account for 4.6 million GP visits per year. Patients with persistent pain consult their GPs five times more frequently than those without.

Untreated pain may reduce quality of life for sufferers and carers, resulting in helplessness, isolation, depression and family breakdown. Many patients with persistent pain have significant functional, social and financial consequences. Forty-nine percent take time off from work, 25% lose their jobs, 22% develop depression, 44% have their concentration affected and 56% have disturbed sleep.

Pain is the second commonest cause of days off work through sickness, accounting for 206 million working days lost in the UK in 1999–2000. It is the second commonest reason for people to be given Incapacity Benefit and £3.8 billion is spent per year on Incapacity Benefit for those in pain. The cost of back pain was £12.3 billion (22% of UK health expenditure) – mainly due to work days lost.

Pain is experienced by 20–50% of patients with cancer at the time of diagnosis and by up to 75% of patients with advanced disease.

CLASSIFICATION OF PAIN

Pain may be classified according to its aetiology.

In complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) type 1, minor injuries, including mild soft tissue trauma or a fracture, precede the onset of symptoms without any overt nerve lesion (Fig. 46.2). CRPS type II develops after injury to a peripheral nerve. Pain is the prominent feature and is characteristically spontaneous and burning in nature and associated with allodynia (abnormal sensitivity of the skin) and hyperalgesia. Autonomic changes may lead to swelling, abnormal sweating and changes in skin blood flow. Atrophy of the skin, nails and muscles can occur and localized osteoporosis may be demonstrated on X-ray or bone scan. Movement of the limb is usually restricted as a result of the pain, and contractures may result. Treatment is directed at providing adequate analgesia to encourage active physiotherapy and improvement of function. In cases with sympathetically maintained pain, sympathetic nerve block may be part of this treatment strategy.