The first clinically focused text dedicated to the newly emerging area of pain medicine known as opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH), Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia provides pain specialists, anesthesiologists, and neurologists with the most current, cutting-edge research and therapeutic options for treating OIH patients. It supplies best practice guidelines for the effective assessment, diagnosis, and management of OIH-need-to-know information clinicians trust and can use in their practice. Organized to provide the information quickly and easily, the book includes dosage recommendations to help minimize the likelihood and/or delay onset of hyperglasia and covers management approaches such as opioid rotation and tapering, provide clinicians with alternative methods for treating OIH's difficult, persistent, and varied problems.

KEY FEATURES:

GROUNDBREAKING CONTENT the first clinically focused text dedicated to the newly emerging area of pain medicine known as opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) provides pain specialists, anesthesiologists, and neurologists with the most current, cutting-edge research and therapeutic options for treating OIH patients

EXPERT CONTRIBUTORSHIP 12 experienced key opinion leaders in the field supply best practice guidelines for the effective assessment, diagnosis, and management of OIH: need-to-know information clinicians trust and can utilize in their practices

CLEAR ORGANIZATION of chapters by type of high-risk patient the cancer patient, the post-op patient, and the chronic and acute pain patientenables clinicians to quickly and easily find the information they need, when they need it

PREVENTATIVE STRATEGIES including dosage recommendations to help minimize the likelihood and/or delay onset of hyperalgesia, enable clinicians to improve patient outcomes

UNIQUE MANAGEMENT APPROACHES such as opioid rotation and tapering, provide clinicians with alternative methods for treating OIH's difficult, persistent, and varied problems

Basic science and clinical pain research is particularly challenging for several reasons. First, pain is a subjective experience in response to nociception that follows actual or potential tissue damage. Since the ability to respond to this warning signal is essential for our survival, the nociceptive system that produces and transmits nociceptive signals is remarkably redundant and involves diffuse regions of the central nervous system. Second, unlike other sensory modalities, pain is a multi-dimensional experience including at least cognitive, affective, and sensory-discriminative components. Third, pain experiences can be influenced by psychological, socioeconomic, cultural, and genetic predispositions, making it exceedingly complicated to study pain and pain modulation. In this first volume, the current status and new trends of pain research are selectively discussed in order to take a critical and constructive look at the achievements of basic science research that have made significant differences in clinical pain management as well as the gaps between basic science research and clinical pain management.

Basic science and clinical pain research is particularly challenging for several reasons. First, pain is a subjective experience in response to nociception that follows actual or potential tissue damage. Since the ability to respond to this warning signal is essential for our survival, the nociceptive system that produces and transmits nociceptive signals is remarkably redundant and involves diffuse regions of the central nervous system. Second, unlike other sensory modalities, pain is a multi-dimensional experience including at least cognitive, affective, and sensory-discriminative components. Third, pain experiences can be influenced by psychological, socioeconomic, cultural, and genetic predispositions, making it exceedingly complicated to study pain and pain modulation. The topics covered in this volume are carefully selected and directly related to the daily practice of pain medicine. These topics include 1) central mechanisms of pain and pain modulation (Dickenson, Donovan-Rodriguez, Mattews) and clinical use of ion channel blockers (Chen); 2) spinal glutamatergic mechanisms (Guo, Dubner, Ren) and issues related to glutamate receptor antagonists in pain management (Mao); 3) basic science of opioid analgesics (Gintzler, Chakrabarti) and clinical opioid use (Smith, McCleane); 4) inflammatory cytokines (Samad) and clinical use of anti-inflammatory drugs (Fink, Brenner); 5) role of the sympathetic nervous system in pain mechanisms and its relation to clinical pain management (Sharma, Raja); 6) preclinical studies on tricyclic antidepressants (Gerner, Wang) and clinical use of antidepressants in pain management (Greenberg); 7) developing pain pathways and analgesic mechanisms during the developmental stage (Fitzgerald) and challenges of pediatric pain management (Lebel); 8) basic science mechanisms of serotonin agonists and their use in the clinical management of migraine headache (Biondi); 9) clinical research on gender differences in clinical pain and their implications for clinical pain management (Holdcroft); 10) current modalities of clinical cancer pain management (Popescu, Hord); and 11) preclinical and clinical information on alternative medicine (Chen).