Pain medicine is a branch of anaesthetics concerned with the treatment of acute and chronicpain. Modern pain medicine is individualised, holistic, and multidisciplinary, using a wide variety of drugs and physical and psychosocial interventions.
Since chronic pain is not a single entity but may have myriad causes and perpetuating factors, these strategies and options vary from behavioral methods and rehabilitation approaches to the use of a number of different medications, including opioids.
It is now accepted by practitioners of the specialty of painmedicine that respiratory depression induced by opioids tends to be a short-lived phenomenon, generally occurs only in the opioid-naive patient, and is antagonized by pain.
The American Pain Society is the national chapter of the International Association for the Study of Pain and is composed of physicians, nurses, psychologists, scientists, and members of other disciplines who have an interest in the study and treatment of pain.
The anesthesiologist or other painmedicine doctors (such as neurologists, oncologists, orthopedists, physiatrists and psychiatrists) and nonphysician specialists (such as nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical or rehabilitation therapists and psychologists) all work together to evaluate your condition.
Cancer pain is another condition that can be managed by a painmedicine doctor while the patient continues to receive treatment for various types of cancer.
Painmedicine doctors are experts at diagnosing why you are having pain as well as treating the pain itself.