Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T18:52:46.453Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Management of chronic pain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Until 50 years ago chronic pain was not considered to be a medical condition that required special evaluation and treatment facilities. Pain was considered to be an indicator of tissue damage and appropriate medical or surgical treatment was prescribed for this. The many patients who had continuing pain because of the results of disease or trauma or because acute treatment was unable to relieve the condition were not seen as suffering from a recognised pathological entity. It was not until a doctor, Sicilian-born John J. Bonica, had to pay his debts as a medical student through wrestling professionally, and later suffered persistent pain as a result, that chronic pain became a recognised condition in its own right. Bonica started a pain clinic in Tacoma, Washington State, in 1949 and wrote the first textbook on pain treatment, The Management of Pain, in 1953. There are now 2000–3000 pain clinics in the USA and almost 5000 worldwide.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1997 

References

Bonica, J. J. (1953) The Management of Pain. Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Febiger.Google Scholar
Bonica, J. J. (1986) Past and current status of pain research and therapy. Seminars in Anaesthesia, 5, 8299.Google Scholar
Boys, L., Peat, S. J., Hanna, M. H. et al (1993) Audit of neural blockade for palliative care patients in an acute unit. Palliative Medicine, 7, 205211.Google Scholar
Charlton, J. E. (1992) Organisation of services in the pain clinic. In Psychology, Psychiatry and Chronic Pain (ed. Tyrer, S. P.) pp. 189200. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.Google Scholar
Cott, A., Parkinson, W., Fabich, M. et al (1992) Long-term efficacy of combined relaxation biofeedback treatments for chronic headache. Pain, 51, 4956.Google Scholar
Elton, N. H., Magdi, M. H. & Treasure, J. (1994) Coping with chronic pain. Some patients suffer more. British Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 802807.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Engel, G. (1959) ‘Psychogenic’ pain and the pain-prone patient. American Journal of Medicine, 26, 899918.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinmann, C., Harris, M. & Cawley, R. (1984) Psychogenic pain: presentation and treatment. British Medical Journal, 228, 436438.Google Scholar
Fields, H. (1991) Depression and pain: Aneurobiological model. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology and Behavioural Neurology, 4, 8392.Google Scholar
Fordyce, W., Fowler, R., Lehmann, J. et al (1973) Operant conditioning in the treatment of chronic clinical pain. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 54, 399408.Google Scholar
Gaw, A. C., Chang, L. W. & Shaw, L.-C. (1975) Efficacy of acupuncture on osteoarthritic pain. New England Journal of Medicine, 293, 375378.Google Scholar
Geisser, M. E., Robinson, M. E., Keefe, F. J. et al (1994) Catastrophizing, depression and the sensory, affective and evaluative aspects of chronic pain. Pain, 59, 7983.Google Scholar
Little, J. C. (1969) The athlete's neurosis – a deprivation crisis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 45, 187197.Google Scholar
Magni, G. (1991) The use of antidepressants in the treatment of chronic pain: A review of the current evidence. Drugs, 42, 730748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melzack, R. & Wall, P. W. (1965) Pain mechanisms: a new theory. Science, 50, 971979.Google Scholar
Merskey, H. (1979) Pain terms; a list with definitions and notes on the usage. Recommended by the IASP Sub-Committee on Taxonomy. Pain, 6, 249252.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I. & Bassett, D. L. (1982) Pain and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 3036.Google Scholar
Price, D. D., Gracely, R. H. & Bennett, G. J. (1995) The challenge and the problem of placebo in assessment of sympathetically maintained pain. In Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy; A Re-Appraisal (eds Jannig, W. & Stanton-Hicks, M.) Progress in Pain Research and Management, vol. 6. Seattle, WA: IASP Press.Google Scholar
Rosenstiel, A. K. & Keefe, F. J. (1983) The use of coping strategies in chronic low back pain patients. Relationship to patient characteristics and current adjustment. Pain, 17, 3344.Google Scholar
Seymour, R. A., Simpson, J. M. & Charlton, J. E. (1985) An evaluation of length and end-phrase of visual analogue scales in dental pain. Pain, 21, 177185.Google Scholar
Sifneos, P. (1973) The prevalence of ‘Alexithymic’ characteristics in psychosomatic patients. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 22, 255262.Google Scholar
Stoiker, R. J., Vervest, A. C. M. & Groen, G. J. (1994) Management of chronic spinal pain by blockades: A review. Pain, 58, 120.Google Scholar
Ter Riet, G., Kleijnen, J. & Knipschild, P. (1990) Acupuncture and chronic pain: A criteria-based meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 43, 11911199.Google Scholar
Turk, D. C. & Meichenbaum, D. (1994) A cognitive-behavioral approach to pain management. In Textbook of Pain (3rd edn) (eds Wall, P. D. & Melzack, R.) pp. 13371348. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Turner, J. A. (1988) Comparison of operant behavioral and cognitive behavioral group treatment for chronic low back pain. Journal of Consulting Clinical Psychology, 56, 261266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, S. P. (1986) Learned pain behaviour. British Medical Journal, 292, 12.Google Scholar
Tyrer, S. P. (1992a) Psychiatric assessment of chronic pain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 733741.Google Scholar
Tyrer, S. P. (1992b) Hypnosis. In Psychology, Psychiatry and Chronic Pain (ed. Tyrer, S. P.) pp. 149155. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.Google Scholar
Tyrer, S. P., Capon, M., Peterson, D. M. et al (1989) The detection of psychiatric illness and psychological handicaps in a British pain clinic population. Pain, 36, 6374.Google Scholar
Waddell, G., McCulloch, J., Kummel, E. et al (1980) Non-organic physical signs in low back pain. Spine, 5, 117125.Google Scholar
Ward, N. G. (1986) Tricyclic antidepressants for chronic low back pain: Mechanism of action and predictors of response. Spine, 11, 661665.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.