Pain Management beyond Nsaids

According to the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. Language is used to describe sensations and emotions, but it is not a prerequisite for feeling these; i.e. lack of ability to verbally communicate in no alters the perception of pain in human neonates, non-verbal adults and animals. For these reasons, IASP added to its definition of pain a caveat; inability to communicate in no way negates the possibility that an individual is experiencing pain and is in need of appropriate pain-relieving treatment. Animal pain has been defined by Maloney et al as “an aversive, sensory experience representing awareness by the animal of danger or threat to the integrity of its tissues; it changes the animal’s physiology and behavior to reduce or avoid the damage, to reduce the likelihood of its recurrence and to promote recovery; non-functional pain occurs when the intensity or duration of the experience is not appropriate for the damage sustained and when physiological and behavioral responses are unsuccessful in alleviating it.”