DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i05.082

Pages: 1842-1846

The management of pain is challenging despite it being the recent focus of extensive research. A number of clinical practice guidelines for the management of pain have been published worldwide over the past 2 decades. Pain is most appropriately treated with the use of opiates, and careful consideration should be given to the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of various analgesics to determine the optimal agent for each individual patient. This review will discuss chronic pain, including epidemiology, diagnostic tools, the multitude of co-morbidities, and common treatment modalities currently available to physicians.