The pain can sometimes be helped by the wise use of antidepressant medication, which causes an increase in the body’s natural production of pain-killers — the endorphins.
The most common form of treatment is a combination of physical therapies and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Dolobrid, Indocid, Brufen, Naprosyn, Voltaren, Orudis, Clinoril and Feldene. Aspirin and [...]
What is a ‘pain game’? It is often an expensive and emotionally exhausting experience for the patient and family and a long-standing disappointment for the medical profession. The term ‘game’ to doctors specialising in pain relief refers to the patient’s ways of behaving and reacting, as well as the family — and even the doctor. [...]
Pain is also common in patients suffering from depression. Psychological testing shows depression in up to 80 percent of chronic pain patients. Patients should be aware that they may be suffering from masked depression. Treatment of the depression frequently greatly reduces pain. In turn, a decrease in pain may also cause a decrease in depression.
Recent [...]
Chronic pain is that which is persistent or recurrent and lasts longer than the usual expected time after illness or injury. Low back pain is by far the most common form of chronic pain, comprising about
80 per cent of cases. Millions more suffer other chronic pain conditions such as the excruciating facial pain of trigeminal [...]
Hay-fever sufferers may feel sorry for themselves as the summer months approach, but they are envied by those afflicted with perennial rhinitis, who have to endure similar symptoms all year round. In their case it is usually airborne allergens, such as mould spores or house dust, which trigger mast cells in the nose. If the [...]