ROLE OF PAIN CLINIC IN THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC PAINFUL DISORDERS

Pain is a very distressing symptom. It is important to treat pain especially if it become chronic. Chronic pain can be very effectively managed in pain clinic by an anaesthesiologist.Before going into details first of all I am trying to explain the basic pathophysiology of pain.Pain is of two types somatic and visceral. Somatic pain is sharp and well localised while visceral pain is dull and poorly localised. Pain has two components one is nociceptive other is affective. Nociceptive components can be treated by both narcotic and non steroidal antiinflammatory agents while affective components can be only treated by opioid or narcotic analgesics. Analgesics are of two types one is narcotic or opioid or morphine like analgesic. They act mainly on central nervous system. Another is non narcotic or aspirin like or non steroidal antiinflammatory agents, they act mainly on peripheral nervous system. There are various painful disorders that can be treated in pain clinic eg. cancer pain, degenerative neurological dysorders, muscle dystonia, diabetic neuropathy,trigeminal neuralgias and viral neuralgias.