Pain Management Strategies

Pain Management Strategies

Reducing pain to a “tolerable” level was once considered the goal of pain management. However, even patients who have described pain relief as adequate often report disturbed sleep and marked distress because of pain. In view of the harmful effects of pain and inadequate pain management, the goal of tolerable pain has been replaced by the goal of relieving the pain. Pain management strategies include both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic ap-proaches. These approaches are selected on the basis of the pa-tient’s requirements and goals. Appropriate analgesic medications are used as prescribed. They are not considered a last resort to be used only when other pain relief measures fail. Any intervention is most successful if initiated before pain sensitization occurs, and the greatest success is usually achieved if several interventions are applied simultaneously.