Types of pain management
There are both pharmacological and non-pharmacological ways in which to relieve pain. Typically, health care professionals try to treat pain without medication first.
Non-Pharmacological Pain Management
Non-pharmacological ways to relieve pain include the use of heat or ice packs, positioning, physiotherapy or alternative therapies such as music as examples. You may have tried various ways to alleviate your pain and it will be helpful to share these methods with your healthcare team in order to direct your pain management plan.
Pharmacological Pain Management
There are many types of pain medicines (analgesia) that are available and most need to be prescribed by a doctor. Pain medication can be given in many ways: most commonly in the form of a tablet, capsule or syrup taken by mouth, a patch placed on your skin, an injection into a muscle, or as an infusion directly into a vein.
Your doctor and healthcare team will assess your pain and decide on the most appropriate pain medicine for your individual needs. The healthcare team will want to reassess you after you have taken the prescribed medication to ensure that it is providing the expected pain relief.
Slow release dosing - Pharmacological
A slow release tablet may be taken once or twice a day or a patch that needs to be changed every 3 or 7 days may be used.
Intermittent dosing can still occur as pain can still be a problem with daily activities, and it's essential that pain can be controlled so daily life can continue while living with the disease.
Combination dosing
A practitioner may prescribe other medications such as a weak analgesia like paracetamol which can complement opioid management or an adjuvant. Adjuvants help with other types of
pain such as neuropathic (nerve) or visceral (organ), and can provide an umbrella effect with addressing all aspects of an individual experience of pain. Often adjuvants can help reduce the need to increase opioids and can provide a more steady state in the pain management experience.