Hodgkin’s Disease Treatments — Pain Management
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Pain Management for Hodgkin's Disease
Most Hodgkin’s disease patients with advanced cancer experience pain during the course of their disease. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we are acutely aware that unrelieved pain can significantly diminish your quality of life. Pain management clinicians at CTCA provide a variety of techniques to provide relief from cancer-related pain.
Cancer pain from Hodgkin’s disease may be acute or chronic. Acute pain generally results from tissue damage and is of limited duration. Once the cause of pain has been identified, it can be successfully managed. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is persistent--usually greater than three months in duration. Because the cause of chronic pain often cannot be altered, your nervous system will adapt, which may cause depression, anxiety and/or insomnia.
Causes
If you experience cancer-related pain, the severity and prevalence of your pain may depend on many factors, including the stage of the Hodgkin’s disease, the location of metastases and your pain threshold. Pain related to Hodgkin’s disease can result from both the disease process and the treatment.
Pain affects each person differently, depending upon factors such as age, personality, perception, pain threshold and past experiences with pain. In addition, psychological factors, such as fear and worry can also influence your experience of pain. Other factors, such as insomnia, fatigue and anxiety may lower the pain threshold, while rest, sleep and diversion can raise it.
Assessment
An accurate assessment of your pain experience provides a basis for an evaluation of various pain management techniques. At CTCA, our pain management clinicians provide a comprehensive assessment that includes information about the following dimensions of your pain:
- Location
- Intensity
- Factors influencing its occurrence (i.e., what makes it better or worse)
- Observed behaviors during pain
- Psychosocial variables (e.g., attitudes, situational factors)
- Effects of pain
- Effects of therapy and patterns of coping.
Pain Management Techniques
Pain management aims to not only provide relief from pain, but also to help you maintain your quality of life during Hodgkin’s disease treatment. Methods of pain management attempt to either control the cause of the pain, or alter your perception of it.
At CTCA, we use several therapeutic approaches to pain management, including pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain control. Pharmacological pain control involves the use of analgesics, and other medications that intensify the analgesics' effects or modify your mood or pain perception. Some non-pharmacological pain control approaches include:
- Behavioral techniques
- Emotional counseling and support
- Physical therapy
- Radiation
- Neurological and neurosurgical interventions
- Traditional nursing and psychosocial interventions
The latter measures an attempt to promote your comfort during Hodgkin’s disease treatment and evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy. Because of the complex nature of pain related to Hodgkin’s disease, successful management usually involves a combination of techniques.
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