Chronic Pain Syndromes: Current Concepts and Treatment Strategies
Course #98703 - $90 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Advances in pain science, in turn, have the potential to greatly assist healthcare providers in delivering more effective pain management approaches, in part through greater elucidation of disease-treatment relationships. Equally important is that some of the most established practices of pain management are now being challenged by recent research evidence. This course intends to provide primary care providers with an understanding of neurobiological mechanisms that underlie common chronic pain conditions and the latest recommendations on pain management. Consistent among treatment guidelines for a wide range of chronic pain conditions are recommendations for using a mechanistic-based treatment approach. This strategy matches the analgesic mechanism of action with the likely underlying pain pathophysiology, combining pharmacologic, psychologic, physical rehabilitation, and interventional treatment approaches into a single, multi-modal approach that addresses the sensory, emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, and social contributions to causation and maintenance of pain. The pace of neuroscience discovery and translation into patient care has led to rapid obsolescence of some practice guidelines. Every effort has been made to provide the most updated information on pain and its management for this course.
- INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND
- VISCERAL AND REFERRED PAIN
- POSTSURGICAL PAIN
- CANCER PAIN
- PAIN OF SPINAL ORIGIN
- ARTHRITIC PAIN CONDITIONS
- HEADACHE
- ENDOMETRIOSIS
- SICKLE CELL DISEASE
- POSTHERPETIC NEURALGIA
- POST-AMPUTATION PAIN
- DIABETIC NEUROPATHY
- COMPLEX REGIONAL PAIN SYNDROME
- FIBROMYALGIA
- CONSIDERATIONS FOR NON-ENGLISH-PROFICIENT PATIENTS
- CONCLUSION
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and allied care providers in the primary care setting who may identify and treat patients with chronic pain syndromes.
Chronic pain imposes a distressing sensory and emotional experience on the patient and potentially leads to life-altering negative outcomes. The purpose of this course is to provide clinicians with the information necessary to identify and appropriately manage chronic pain syndromes in accordance with evidence-based guidelines.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Recall the epidemiology, contributing factors, and personal/societal cost of chronic pain syndromes.
- Outline the pathophysiology of visceral and referred pain and therapeutic implications.
- Describe the management of pain associated with cancer.
- Describe the presentation and evidence-based management of low back pain.
- Apply evidence-based strategies for the management of whiplash-associated disorders.
- Illustrate approaches to the treatment of arthritis- associated pain.
- Analyze the diagnosis and treatment of gout and gout-related pain.
- Discuss the diagnosis and management of headaches of various types.
- Describe key points in the pathophysiology and treatment of endometriosis.
- Evaluate options available for the management of pain associated with sickle cell disease.
- Identify postherpetic neuralgia and available treatment modalities.
- Assess patients' post-amputation pain and identify treatment options.
- Review key points in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic neuropathy.
- Outline the criteria for the diagnosis and management of complex regional pain syndrome.
- Identify appropriate strategies for the management of fibromyalgia pain.
Mark Rose, BS, MA, LP, is a licensed psychologist in the State of Minnesota with a private consulting practice and a medical research analyst with a biomedical communications firm. Earlier healthcare technology assessment work led to medical device and pharmaceutical sector experience in new product development involving cancer ablative devices and pain therapeutics. Along with substantial experience in addiction research, Mr. Rose has contributed to the authorship of numerous papers on CNS, oncology, and other medical disorders. He is the lead author of papers published in peer-reviewed addiction, psychiatry, and pain medicine journals and has written books on prescription opioids and alcoholism published by the Hazelden Foundation. He also serves as an Expert Advisor and Expert Witness to law firms that represent disability claimants or criminal defendants on cases related to chronic pain, psychiatric/substance use disorders, and acute pharmacologic/toxicologic effects. Mr. Rose is on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis-based International Institute of Anti-Aging Medicine and is a member of several professional organizations.
Contributing faculty, Mark Rose, BS, MA, LP, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
John M. Leonard, MD
Jane C. Norman, RN, MSN, CNE, PhD
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.