Lecture 3 Definitions Flashcards
Pain that is sudden in onset, usually subsides when treated, and typically occurs over less than a 6-week period.
Acute pain
Drugs that are added fir combined therapy with a primary drug and may have additive or independent analgesic properties or both.
Adjuvant analgesic drugs
Substances that bind to a receptor and cause a response
Agonists
Substances that bind to a receptor and cause a partial response that is not as strong as that caused by agonists
Agonists- antagonists (partial agonists)
What occurs when a particular pain drug no longer effectively controls a patient’s pain despite the administration of the highest safe dosages
Analgesic ceiling effect.
Drugs that bind to a receptor and prevent (block) a response, resulting in inhibitory or antagonistic drug effects.
Antagonists (inhibitors)
Pain that occurs between doses of pain medication
Breakthrough pain
A common and well-described theory of pain transmission and pain relief. It uses a gate model to explain how impulses from damaged tissues are sensed in the brain.
Gate control theory
Pain that results from a disturbance of function or pathologic change in a nerve
Neuropathic pain
Processing of pain signals in the brain that give rise to the feeling of pain.
Nociception
A subclass of sensory nerves (A and C fibers) that transmit pain signals to the CNS from other body parts.
Nociceptors
Pain that arises from mechanical, chemical, or thermal irritation or peripheral sensory nerves. Two subtypes of this are visceral and somatic.
Nociceptive pain
Analgesics that are structurally and functionally different from opioids.
Nonopiod analgesics.
A large, chemically diverse group of drugs that are analgesics and possess anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties but are not corticosteroids.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
Synthetic drugs that bind to opiate receptods to relieve pain.
Opiate analgesics
Describes patients who are receiving opiod analgesics for the first time or intermittently for a brief period of time and who therefore are not accustomed to their effects.
Opiod naive.
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage.
Pain
The level of stimulus that results in the sensation of pain.
Pain threshold
A drug that binds to a receptor and causes a response that is less than that caused by a full agonist.
Partial agonists (agonists- antagonist)
Recurring pain that is often difficult to treat. Includes any pain lasting longer than 3-6 months, pain lasting longer than 1 month after healing of an acute injury, or pain that accompanies a nonhealing tissues injury.
Persisten pain (chronic or long term pain)
A condition in which a patient takes a drug over a period of time and in which unpleasant physical symptoms (withdrawal symptoms) occur if the drug is stopped abruptly or smaller doses are given. The physical adaptation of the body to the presence of an opiod or other addictive substance
Physical dependence
A pattern of compulsive use of opiods or any other addictive substance characterized by a continuous craving for the substance and the need to use it for effects other than pain relief.
Psychological dependence (addiction)
Pain that originates from skeletal muscles, ligaments or joints.
Somatic pain
The general term for pain control situations that are complex and whose treatment typically involves multiple medications, various health care personnel, and nonpharmacological therapeutic modalities.
Special pain situation
Drug interactions in which the effect of a combination of two or more drugs with similar actions is greater than the sum of the individual effects of the same drug given alone.
Synergistic effects
Pain that results from pathology of the vascular or perivascular tissues
Vascular pain
Pain that originates from internal organs or smooth muscles
Visceral pain
