NEUROLOGY
e
MULTiDiSCiPLiNARY CAR
AND
FAMiLY INVOLV M NT
e e
Centralized pain is a progressive tissue-destructive process that requires care
by a professional team because this process
interferes with every aspect of a person’s
well-being. Our psychologists, nurses, physical therapists, podiatrists, pharmacists, and
social workers need to have a thorough understanding of the physiology and medical
treatments for centralized pain as well as the
economic and cultural setting in which the
patient resides to contribute their specialized
skill (see Figure 3). Patients with centralized
pain require a lifetime of multidisciplinary
care, whether that care is provided under
one roof by a single practice with multidisciplinary staff or managed through a community-based referral system.
The serious complications of centralized
pain require that the family of these patients
be educated and included as an integral part
of the therapeutic process. Severe forms of
centralized pain may produce such significant mental deterioration in the patient that
custodial care may be needed. Families simply have to know about pain and the healing
process in order to be prepared.
SUMMARY
Research over the last 2 decades has
elucidated the mechanism by which a nerve
injury in peripheral tissue can lead to neuroinflammation and imprinting of pain in
the memory of CNS cells. Knowing that
the severe forms of centralized pain produce
suffering and disability, pain practitioners
should make great effort to make a clinical
diagnosis and develop treatment plans for all
patients with centralized pain.
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