Pain And Neuropathic Pain

Pain is universal and personal to those who are experiencing it. It is subjectively measured on a scale of 0-10 with zero being no pain and 10 being the worst pain ever. This can be problematic for patients and doctors because this score can be understated or overstated. Doctors will make quick decisions based on this score. Patients might feel not believed because only they can feel the pain. However, untreated pain symptoms may be associated with impaired activities of daily life and decreased quality of life. Pain is defined in our textbook, “as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage” (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016, p 25). Actual pain is understood by most because there is an

This type of pain is classified as nociceptive pain or the normal pain process. It involves four processes that occur continuously: transduction, transmission, perception, and modulation. Neuropathic pain is not as easily understood because it involves damage and dysfunction of nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and/or the central nervous system (CNS) (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016). Most patients describe neuropathic type pain as burning, stabbing, shooting, and/or a feeling pins and needles (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016). This type of pain is hard to treat because of the subjective nature of pain and not all the causes of neuropathic pain are understood. This paper is a review of pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of neuropathic pain management. Three articles were found on this subject and summarized to inform its readers on recent research conducted within the last five years. The first article reviewed was a research study to determine strategies patient’s implemented in order to cope with

A feasibility study.” The purpose of this small controlled study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture at decreasing neuropathic pain and improving health-related quality of life. The author 's hypothesis was that acupuncture would significantly reduce pain in these types of patients. This study involved only twelve participants from a podiatry clinic dedicated to teaching students. All participants had to be over 18 years old, diagnosed with diabetes and have a history of diabetes-related neuropathic pain for at least 3 months. Participants in this study completed assessment surveys before and after they were given acupuncture. Acupuncture was given five times during a four-week period. The surveys assessed the participants’ belief in the effectiveness of acupuncture, their quality of life, and current pain level. This study concluded that acupuncture did help reduce neuropathic pain in all the participants but it was not statistically significant. The self-reported belief in acupuncture survey showed a statistical difference in belief of the effects of acupuncture before and after a course of the intervention. This might be because most of the participants in this study reported The quality of life survey assessed six domains and all showed improvement. Although the