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Pain


Pain is an unpleasant experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage to a person's body. Pain often accompanies diseases of the bones, muscles, joints, and skin. Pain is an unpleasant experience primarily associated with some kind of tissue damage. Pain is your body's way of warning your brain that something might be wrong. Pain can be sharp or dull, burning or numbing, minor or major, acute or chronic. It can be a minor inconvenience or completely disabling.

There are two basic forms of pain: acute and chronic.

  • Acute pain, for the most part, results from disease, inflammation, or injury to tissues. It is immediate and usually of a short duration. Acute pain is a normal response to injury and may be accompanied by anxiety or emotional distress. The cause of acute pain can usually be diagnosed and treated.
  • Chronic pain is continuous pain that persists for more than 3 months, and beyond the time of normal healing. It ranges from mild to severe and can last weeks, months, or years to a lifetime. The cause of chronic pain is not always evident, although it can be brought on by chronic conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia.

Pain may cause differing sensations:

  • Sharp
  • Shooting
  • Stabbing
  • Aching
  • Burning
  • Needle prickling or numbness/tingling
  • Throbbing
  • Cramping
  • Feeling of pressure

People differ remarkably in their ability to tolerate pain. One person cannot tolerate the pain of a small cutt or bruise, but another person can tolerate pain caused by a major accident or or knife wound with little complaint. The ability to withstand pain varies according to mood, personality, and circumstance. In a moment of excitement during an athletic match, an athlete may not notice a severe bruise but is likely to be very aware of the pain after the match. The ability to tolerate pain may change with age. S people age, they complain less of pain, perhaps because changes in the body decrease the sensation of pain. On the other hand, older people may simply be more stoic than younger people.

Pain is also felt in varying degrees. Typically, your doctor will ask you to describe your pain and rate it on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the weakest type pain sensation and 10 representing the strongest type pain sensation.

Treatment

In some cases, treating the underlying disorder eliminates or minimizes the pain. However, even if the underlying disorder can be treated, pain relievers (analgesics) may still be needed to quickly manage the pain. Doctors choose an analgesic based on the type and duration of pain and on the likely benefits and risks. Most analgesics are effective for nociceptive pain but are less effective for neuropathic pain, which often requires different drugs.

Analgesics fall into three categories:

The effectiveness of pain medications, also called analgesics, varies from person to person. Even if the medication is used correctly, it may not provide the same level of relief for everyone. For this reason, pain management is usually a multi-step process.

The first agents to be tried are the "simple" analgesics (acetaminophen, aspirin, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)). For milder forms of pain, over-the-counter doses of these medications may be enough to control pain symptoms. For mild acute pain, these medications can generally be taken on as "as needed" basis. If the mild pain is more chronic in nature, these simple analgesics should typically be taken on a scheduled basis to help control pain and prevent it from "breaking through." For more moderate forms of pain, prescription medications may be needed.

If pain gets worse, a narcotic is added. Often a narcotic combined with a simple analgesic into one tablet or capsule is used. When pain is too intense for a combination to control, the doctor may prescribe higher doses of the narcotic taken separately from any simple analgesics that the patient continues to take.

Price-RX.com offers you price comparison of the following non-controlled pain relief prescription drugs used to relief pain:

Central Analgesics

Miscellaneous Analgesics

Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs





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