Pain Management for Multiple Myeloma
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Multiple Myeloma Treatment: Pain Management
At one point or another, many patients with multiple myeloma may experience pain during the course of their disease. Our compassionate care team at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) understands how unrelieved pain can significantly diminish your quality of life. As part of our whole-person approach to multiple myeloma treatment, we offer a variety of pain management techniques to help improve your level of comfort, mitigate your pain and lessen side effects you may be experiencing.
Cancer-related pain is grouped into two categories: acute or chronic. Of limited duration, acute pain generally results from tissue damage and can be successfully treated once the cause of pain has been identified. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is persistent (usually greater than three months in duration) and results from underlying causes that are harder to identify. Because the cause of chronic pain often cannot be altered, it may have a more long-term effect on quality of life, sleep and productivity.
Causes
The severity and prevalence of pain you may experience depend on many factors, including the stage of the multiple myeloma. Cancer-related pain can result from both the disease process, as well as conventional multiple myeloma treatments (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation).
At CTCA, we understand that pain affects each multiple myeloma patient differently. Factors such as age, personality, perception, pain threshold, and past experiences with pain can all influence your unique experience and reaction, as can various psychological factors. Fatigue, anxiety and lack of sleep may make you more susceptible to cancer-related pain, while rest, sleep and diversion can strengthen your defenses.
Assessment
In order to determine which pain management techniques are best for your individual needs, our cancer doctors will first conduct an accurate assessment of your pain experience that includes the following information:
- 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
At CTCA, our goal is not only to provide relief from pain, but to enable you to maintain a normal quality of life throughout your multiple myeloma treatment. All methods of pain management we provide attempt to either control the cause of the pain or alter your perception of it.
Although pain management techniques come in many diverse forms, therapeutic approaches can be classified as either pharmacological or nonpharmacological. Pharmacological pain control involves the use of analgesics (pain medications), as well as other medications that intensify the analgesics' effects or modify your mood or pain perception. Nonpharmacological approaches include:
- Behavioral techniques
- Radiation
- Surgery
- Neurological and neurosurgical interventions
- Traditional nursing and psychosocial interventions
The latter measures attempt to promote your comfort and evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy. Because of the complex nature of cancer-related pain, CTCA cancer doctors may recommend a combination of different techniques to effectively manage pain during multiple myeloma treatment.
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