Via practica 7-8/2007

PAIN MANAGEMENT IN GENERAL PRACTICE

Acute pain is part of many diseases. After healing of the disease the pain goes away. Chronic pain arises from a long-lasting pathologic process, which damages the tissues and organs and has a malignant influence on human life in physical, social and psychological sense. Chronic pain becomes an individual disease, with necessary treatment with analgetics. There are two types of chronic pain, categorized by the origin – cancer related pain and non related. Each doctor, adressed by his patient with chronic pain has to consider the history of the patient. If a general practitioner or other specialist doesn`t know how to manage the chronic pain, it should by evaluated by an algesiologist.

Keywords: pain, analgetic ladder, opioid analgetics.