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Neuropathic pain: evidence matters
Author(s) -
McQuay Henry J.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
european journal of pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.305
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1532-2149
pISSN - 1090-3801
DOI - 10.1053/eujp.2001.0316
Subject(s) - neuropathic pain , opium , surprise , medicine , nothing , morphine , psychiatry , pain relief , anesthesia , psychology , law , philosophy , political science , social psychology , epistemology
‘He slept less and less; they gave him opium and began to inject morphine. But this did not relieve him. The dull pain he experienced in the half asleep condition at first only relieved him as a change, but then it became as bad, or even more agonizing, than the open pain.’ Tolstoy The Death of Ivan Ilyitch It comes as a surprise to many pharmacologists that not all pains are relieved by opioids. Those who work in chronic pain are unfortunately only too aware of the problems that such pains can cause. One of the hallmarks of neuropathic pain is poor or incomplete relief with opioids. As with so many things in medicine, there is nothing novel in this realization, as the Tolstoy quotation shows. © 2002 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain