The value of the International Association for the Study of Pain to developing countries.

Since it was founded, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has been at the forefront of improving pain research, education, and effective pain management in both developed and developing countries. As IASP activities progressed, major differences between the practice of pain management, education, and research in developed countries compared with developing countries were identified. This led to areas of focus by IASP that included pain education to address poor knowledge of pain assessment and treatment, prioritization of pain management by governments and official national legislation and programs, and availability of pain treatments (especially potent analgesics).

Tramadol: a valuable treatment for pain in Southeast Asian countries.

Background: The supply of controlled drugs is limited in the Far East, despite the prevalence of health disorders that warrant their prescription. Reasons for this include strict regulatory frameworks, limited financial resources, lack of appropriate training amongst the medical profession and fear of addiction in both general practitioners and the wider population. Consequently, the weak opioid tramadol has become the analgesic most frequently used in the region to treat moderate to severe pain.

Pain: A Neglected Problem in the Low-Resource Setting.

Approximately 80% of the world's population lives in countries with little or no access to pain management. These countries also have 74% of the world's deaths from cancer and human immunodeficiency virus. Appropriate use of oral opioids can control 80%-90% of cancer pain.

Effect of Co-Morbid Conditions on Persistent Neuropathic Pain after Brachial Plexus Injury in Adult Patients.

Background And Purpose: Neuropathic pain (NeuP) associated with traumatic brachial plexus injury (BPI) can be severe, persistent, and resistant to treatment. Moreover, comorbidity associated with NeuP may worsen the pain and quality of life. This study compared persistent NeuP after BPI between patients with and without co-morbid conditions (psychiatric dysfunction and other painful conditions) and tramadol usage as a second-line agent in combination with an antiepileptic and/or antidepressant during a 2-year follow-up.

Current considerations for the management of musculoskeletal pain in Asian countries: a special focus on cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors and non-steroid anti-inflammation drugs.

Chronic pain is a complex problem that eludes precise definition and can be clinically difficult to diagnose and challenging to treat. In the Asia-Pacific region, prevalence estimates that chronic pain ranges from 12% to 45% of the population, with musculoskeletal, rheumatic or osteoarthritis pain making up the majority of the disease burden. Implementation of current management guidelines into routine clinical practice has been challenging and as a result, patients with musculoskeletal pain are often poorly managed.

Validation of the Thai Version of Brief Pain Inventory (BPI-T) in cancer patients.

Background: Pain is one of the most frequent and deleterious symptoms for patients with advanced cancer. Pain assessment is important because it is used for detecting severity of disease and the response to treatment. To provide the adequate treatment for pain relief in cancer patients, an assessment tool should be used for pain evaluation.

Cross-cultural adaptation to the Thai language of the neuropathic pain diagnostic questionnaire (DN4).

Objective: To cross-culturally adapt the neuropathic pain diagnostic questionnaire (DN4) to Thai language

Material And Method: Phase 1: Forward and backward translation followed by assessment of semantic equivalence. Phase 2: Testing of the questionnaire in 30 neuropathic pain patients who were seen and diagnosed by experts, followed by modifications to produce a final version.

Results: All the Thai translated pain descriptors except 'tingling' got high percentages of understanding among neuropathic pain patients in the first round of testing.

Anesthetic pain management in Siriraj Hospital: a retrospective review.

Neural blockade has been used as the single method to anesthetize a part of the body or used in combination with general anesthesia to lessen perioperative pain. Currently, nerve blocks are used for diagnostic, prognostic, therapeutic and prophylactic proposes for management of chronic, acute and cancer pain in a Pain Clinic. Reviewing the records of the 3,349 patients at Siriraj Pain Clinic, we found 2,662 and 687 cases had chronic and acute pain problems respectively, and only 646 patients were treated with anesthetic interventions during 1990 to 1998.