Module 1B Part 2: Pain, Comfort and Sleep. Complementary and Alternative Therapies Flashcards
What are the Categories of pain?
- Pain
- Acute pain
- Chronic pain
- Nociceptive pain
- Neuropathic pain
What is Pain?
- The feeling of distress and discomfort
- Affects or interferes with normal activity
- No accurate objective measurement of pain
What is Acute Pain?
- Protective; temporary; usually self-limiting; has a direct cause; resolves with tissue healing.
- Physiological responses (sympathetic nervous system) -fight-or-flight responses
- Behavioral responses: grimacing, moaning, flinching, and guarding.
- Interventions focus on the treatment of underlying problems.
- If unrelieved -can lead to chronic pain
What is Chronic Pain?
- Not protective; ongoing or recurs frequently; lasting > 6 months and persisting beyond tissue healing.
- Typically, no change seen in Vital Signs
- Psychological responses: depression, fatigue, and a decreased level of functioning. It is not usually life-threatening.
- Psychosocial implications can lead to disability.
- Management aimed at symptomatic relief.
- Pain is not always responsive to interventions.
- Can be malignant or nonmalignant
- Idiopathic pain
- Interventions
- Long-acting or controlled-release opioid analgesics (including the transdermal route).
- Around-the-clock analgesics (vs. PRN)
What is Nociceptive Pain?
- Damage to or inflammation of the tissue (noxious stimulus triggers pain receptors [nociceptors] causing pain sensation)
- Throbbing, aching, and localized
- Interventions: Opioids and non-opioid medications.
- Types of Nociceptive Pain:
- Somatic: In bones, joints, muscles, skin, or connective tissues.
- Visceral: In internal organs (the stomach or intestines). It can cause referred pain in other body locations separate from the stimulus.
- Cutaneous: In the skin or subcutaneous tissue.
What is Neuropathic Pain?
- Arises from abnormal or damaged pain nerves
- Includes phantom limb pain, pain below the level of a spinal cord injury, and diabetic neuropathy.
- Intense, shooting, burning, “pins and needles.”
- Interventions: Adjuvant medications (antidepressants, antispasmodic agents, skeletal muscle relaxants). Topical medications can provide relief for peripheral neuropathic pain.
What is the Physiology of Nociceptive Pain?
- Transduction
- Transmission
- Pain threshold
- Pain tolerance
- Perception
- Modulation
What is Transduction?
Transduction is a conversion of painful stimuli to an electrical impulse through peripheral nerve fibers (nociceptors).
What is Transmission?
Transmission is the electrical impulse travels along the nerve fibers, where neurotransmitters regulate it.
What is the Pain Threshold?
Pain threshold is the point at which a person feels pain.
What is the Pain Tolerance?
Pain tolerance is the amount of pain a person is willing to bear.
What is Pain Perception?
Perception or awareness of pain occurs in various areas of the brain, with influences from thought and emotional processes.
What is Modulation?
Modulation occurs in the spinal cord, causing muscles to contract reflexively, moving the body away from painful stimuli.
What substances increase pain transmission?
- Substance P
- Prostaglandins
- Bradykinin
- Histamine
What substances decrease pain transmission?
- Serotonin
- Endorphins
What is Referred Pain?
- Pain from a deep organ in the body often “referred” to another place on the body’s surface.
- Caused when pain signal comes into the spinal cord and nerves not directly affected are stimulated (shared pathways in spinal cord transmission).
What is the Gate Control Theory?
- Pain transmission controlled by a gate mechanism in the central nervous system.
- The opening gate allows transmission of pain sensation; closing the gate blocks this transmission.
- The gate may be opened by activity in the small-diameter nerve fibers from such things as tissue damage. Activity in the large-diameter nerve fibers, such as that provided by massage or vibration, closes the gate
- Brainstem impulses caused by a high sensory input closes the gate, whereas a lack of this input allows the gate to open.
- The cerebral cortex and thalamus play a role by opening the gate with impulses originating from an increase in anxiety, or by closing it with impulses originating from a decrease in anxiety.
How is Pain Managed?
- Pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain management therapies are part of effective pain management.
- Invasive therapies (nerve ablation) can be appropriate for intractable cancer-related pain.
- Clients have a right to adequate assessment and management of pain.
- Assessment performed with VS; considered “5thVital Sign.”
- Nurse: Priority responsibility to the assessment of pain
- Routinely measure pain level
- Provide individualized interventions
- Evaluation: reassess pain 10-60 minutes after administering medication (depending on medication route)
What are the Risk Factors for Undertreatment of Pain?
- Undertreatment of Pain
- At-Risk Populations
What causes pain undertreatment?
- Cultural and societal attitudes
- Lack of knowledge
- Fear of addiction
- The exaggerated fear of respiratory depression
What populations are at risk for undertreatment of pain?
- Infants
- Children
- Older adults
- Clients who have substance use disorder
What are the factors that affect the Pain Experience?
- Age
- Fatigue
- Genetic sensitivity
- Cognitive function
- Prior experiences
- Anxiety and fear
- Support systems and coping styles
- Culture
What are the Age Factors that affect the pain experience?
- Age
- Infants cannot verbalize or understand their pain.
- Older adult clients can have multiple pathologies that cause pain and limit function.
What are the Fatigue Factors that affect the pain experience?
Fatigue: Can increase sensitivity to pain.
What are the Genetic Factors that affect the pain experience?
Genetic sensitivity: Can increase or decrease pain tolerance.
What are the Cognitive Factors that affect the pain experience?
Cognitive function: Clients who have cognitive impairment might not be able to report pain or report it accurately.
What are the Prior Factors that affect the pain experience?
Prior experiences: Can increase or decrease sensitivity depending on whether clients obtained adequate relief.
What are the Anxiety Factors that affect the pain experience?
Anxiety and fear: Can increase sensitivity to pain.
What are the Support/Coping Factors that affect the pain experience?
Support systems and coping styles: The presence of these can decrease sensitivity to pain.
What are the Culture Factors that affect the pain experience?
Culture: Can influence how pain is expressed or the meaning they give to pain.
Mnemonic for Pain Assessment (PQRST)
Precipitating Events
Quality
Radiation of pain
Severity
Timing
How does a nurse assess pain?
- Pain is whatever a person experiencing it says it is; exists whenever a person says it does
- Client’s report of pain most reliable diagnostic measure
- Self-report using standardized pain scale –useful for clients > 7 yrs. old (scale examples on next slide)
- Assess and document pain (the fifth vital sign)
What should a nurse expect to find when assessing pain?
- Behaviors complement self-report and assist in pain assessment of nonverbal clients.
- Facial expressions (grimacing, wrinkled forehead), body movements (restlessness, pacing, guarding)
- Moaning, crying
- Decreased attention span
- Blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rate increase temporarily with acute pain. Eventually, increases in vital signs will stabilize despite the persistence of pain. Therefore, physiologic indicators might not be an accurate measure of pain over time.
- Clients might experience hyperalgesia (a heightened sense of pain).
- Allodynia is a condition in which the client experiences pain following experiences that are not usually painful (when wearing clothes or feeling the wind blow).
What are nonpharmacological pain management strategies?
- Cognitive-behavioral measures:
- Cutaneous (skin) stimulation
- Distraction
- Relaxation
- Imagery
- Acupuncture and acupressure
- Reduction of pain stimuli in the environment
- Elevation of edematous extremities
What are Cognitive-behavioral measures?
Cognitive-behavioral measures: changing the way a client perceives pain, and physical approaches to improve comfort