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Pain & HIV/AIDS
Glossary
- Ablative surgery.
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- Surgical procedures performed on
peripheral nerves, the spinal cord, the brain or brain stem that relieve
pain by permanent disruption of nerve pathways.
- Acupuncture.
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- The piercing of specific body sites with
needles to produce pain relief.
- Addiction (psychological dependence).
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- Pattern of
compulsive drug use characterized by a continued craving for an opioid
and the need to use the opioid for effects other than pain relief.
- Adjuvant analgesic drug.
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- A drug that is not a primary
analgesic but that research has shown to have independent or additive
analgesic properties.
- Anxiolysis.
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- Sedation or hypnosis used to reduce
anxiety, agitation, or tension.
- Anxiolytic.
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- Medication used to reduce anxiety,
agitation, or tension.
- Behavioral techniques.
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- A coping strategy in which
patients are taught to monitor and evaluate their own behavior and to
modify their reactions to pain.
- Biofeedback.
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- A process in which a person learns to
influence reliably physiologic responses of two kinds: those that are
not ordinarily under voluntary control or those that ordinarily are
easily regulated but for which regulation has broken down because of
trauma or disease.
- Breakthrough pain.
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- Intermittent exacerbations of pain
that can occur spontaneously or in relation to specific activity.
- Cognitive reappraisal.
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- A coping strategy in which
patients are taught to monitor and evaluate negative thoughts and
replace them with more positive thoughts and images.
- Conscious sedation.
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- "Light sedation" during which the
patient retains airway reflexes and responses to verbal stimuli.
- Counterstimulation.
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- Application of moderate to intense
sensory stimulation, such as with cold, heat, rubbing, pressure, or
electrical current, so as to decrease perception of pain at the same or
a distant site.
- Cryotherapy.
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- The therapeutic use of cold to reduce
discomfort; limit progression of tissue edema; or break a cycle of
muscle spasm. Cryotherapy is a form of counterirritation.
- Deafferentation pain.
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- Pain due to loss of sensory
input into the central nervous system, as occurs with avulsion of the
brachial plexus or other types of lesions of peripheral nerves or
because of pathology of the central nervous system.
- Distraction.
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- The cognitive strategy of focusing
attention on stimuli other than pain or negative emotions that accompany
pain.
- Dysesthesia.
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- An unpleasant abnormal sensation, whether
spontaneous or evoked.
- Epidural.
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- Situated within the spinal canal, on or
outside the dura mater (tough membrane surrounding the spinal cord);
synonyms are "extradural" and "peridural."
- Equianalgesic.
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- Having equal pain-killing effect;
morphine sulfate, 10 mg intramuscularly, is generally used for opioid
analgesic comparisons.
- Horner's syndrome.
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- A Pancoast tumor that involves both
the upper and lower brachial plexus.
- Hyperpathia.
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- A painful syndrome, characterized by
increased reaction to a stimulus, especially a repetitive stimulus, as
well as an increased threshold.
- Hypnosis.
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- A state of heightened awareness and focused
concentration that can be used to manipulate the perception of pain.
- Iatrogenic.
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- Induced inadvertently by the medical
treatment or procedures of a physician.
- Imagery.
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- A cognitive-behavioral strategy that uses
mental images as an aid to relaxation.
- Incident pain.
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- See "movement-related pain."
- Intrathecal.
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- Within a sheath, e.g., cerebrospinal
fluid that is contained within the dura mater.
- Lancinating.
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- Characterized by piercing or stabbing
sensations.
- Local nerve block.
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- Infiltration of a local anesthetic
around a peripheral nerve so as to produce anesthesia in the area
supplied by the nerve.
- Mixed opioid agonist-antagonist.
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- A compound that has
an affinity for two or more types of opioid receptors and blocks opioid
effects on one receptor type while producing opioid effects on a second
receptor type.
- Movement-related pain.
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- A type of breakthrough pain
that is related to specific activity, such as eating, defecation,
socializing, or walking. Also referred to as incident pain.
- Mucositis.
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- Inflammation of a mucous membrane. Oral
mucositis is a common complication of chemotherapy and radiation
therapy.
- Music therapy.
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- A form of distraction that uses music
as an aid to relaxation.
- Myofascial pain.
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- A large group of muscle disorders
characterized by the presence of hypersensitive points, called trigger
points, within one or more muscles and/or the investing connective
tissue together with a syndrome of pain, muscle spasm, tenderness,
stiffness, limitation of motion, weakness, and occasionally autonomic
dysfunction.
- Neurolytic block.
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- The injection of a chemical agent to
cause destruction and consequent prolonged interruption of peripheral
somatic or sympathetic nerves, or in some cases, the neuraxis.
- Neuropathic pain.
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- Pain that results from a disturbance
of function or pathologic change in a nerve; in one nerve
mononeuropathy; in several nerves, mononeuropathy multiplex; if diffuse
and bilateral, polyneuropathy.
- Nociceptive.
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- The process of pain transmission; usually
relating to a receptive neuron for painful sensations.
- NSAID.
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- Aspirin-like drug that reduces inflammation
(and hence pain) arising from injured tissue.
- Opioid agonist.
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- Any morphine-like compound that
produces bodily effects including pain relief, sedation, constipation,
and respiratory depression.
- Opioid partial agonist.
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- A compound that has an
affinity for and stimulates physiologic activity at the same cell
receptors as opioid agonists but that produces only a partial (i.e.,
submaximal) bodily response.
- Opiate receptor.
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- Opiate-binding sites found throughout
primary afferents and the neuraxis.
- Pain.
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- An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience
associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms
of such damage.
- Palliative therapy.
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- A procedure such as chemotherapy,
radiation therapy, or surgery that is performed to relieve or ease pain.
- Pancoast tumor.
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- Tumor originating from the superior
sulcus of the lung that invades all or a portion of the brachial plexus.
- PCA.
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- Self-administration of analgesics by a patient
instructed in doing so; usually refers to self-dosing with intravenous
opioid (e.g., morphine) administered by means of a programmable pump.
- Physical dependence.
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- Physiologic adaptation of the
body to the presence of opioid is required to maintain the same level of
analgesia.
- Physical modalities.
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- Therapeutic interventions that
use physical methods, such as heat, cold, massage, or exercise, to
relieve pain.
- Progressive muscle relaxation.
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- A cognitive-behavioral
strategy in which muscles are alternately tensed and then relaxed in a
systematic fashion.
- Pseudoaddiction.
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- Pattern of drug-seeking behavior of
pain patients receiving inadequate pain management that can be mistaken
for addiction.
- Psychological dependence (addiction).
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- Pattern of
compulsive drug use characterized by a continued craving for an opioid
and the need to use the opioid for effects other than pain relief.
- Psychosocial intervention.
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- A therapeutic intervention
that uses cognitive, cognitive-behavioral, behavioral, and supportive
interventions to relieve pain. These include patient education,
interventions aimed at aiding relaxation, psychotherapy, and structured
or peer support.
- Relaxation.
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- A state of relative freedom from both
anxiety and skeletal muscle tension.
- Self-statement.
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- Involves instructing patients to
substitute positive thoughts for such negative ones as "I can't stand
this" or "How much longer will this go on?"
- Suffering.
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- A state of severe distress associated with
events that threaten the intactness of the person.
- Tolerance.
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- A common physiologic result of chronic
opioid use; it means that a larger dose of opioid is required to
maintain the same level of analgesia.
- TENS.
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- A method of producing electroanalgesia through
electrodes applied to the skin.
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