Pain—New Perspectives in Measurement and Management

This volume is a collection of short reports read before a symposium in May 1977, and published less than a year later. It deals, in the main, with the evaluation and use of opiate agonist and antagonist drugs in the management of acute pain in trauma, ureteral colic, and myocardial infarction, and postoperatively. As background to these discussions, the problems of cardiocirculatory and respiratory depression inherent in various agents and their potential for abuse is discussed. A brief statement of some of the more recent developments in the field of endogenous opioid compounds is presented in an essay by Dr H. W. Kosterlitz. Several short chapters deal with the management of pain in patients who are terminally ill and cared for either in special hospital units or at home. The emphasis is on adequate and frequent administration of narcotic analgesic agents and on personal interaction among physicians, nursing staff, and