4 ms·
Getting the balance here is difficult. Pain inhibits recovery, and badly managed acute pain can precipitate chronic pain. However, strong pain killers are addic
by thomasfedb 8y ago
Getting the balance here is difficult. Pain inhibits recovery, and badly managed acute pain can precipitate chronic pain. However, strong pain killers are addictive.
That said, even the simple analgesics (paracetamol, ibuprofen) have their dangers and we have maximum dosing that should not be exceeded. Paracetamol overdose causes horrible liver damage (up to and including lethal damage), and NSAIDs can cause clotting issues post-surgery, gastrointestinal issues, etc.
- chmod775 8y ago> Pain inhibits recovery Not as much as you tearing your wounds open again because your body wasn't able to warn you.
- thomasfedb 8y agoI assume your suggesting that analgesia prevents the detection of wound infection? Pain is hardly the only sign: redness, swelling, heat, discharge, tachycardia, fever, etc.
- chmod775 8y ago> I assume your suggesting that analgesia prevents the detection of wound infection? You misread what I said. Pain is part of the feedback loop that keeps you from straining your skin, muscle and bones past their tearing/breaking point. People who don't feel pain are many times more likely to injure themselves, especially when they already have wounds that might re-open through the wrong movement. Pain is likely to stop wrong movements long before you can make your condition worse. Mostly pain is a "desirable" sensory input. But it's understandable that people don't like it. There's obviously cases where you want to prescribe strong painkillers - but if you're taking those you shouldn't be out and about anyways and have people watching over you. For most post-op pain you shouldn't be on strong painkillers for long though, lest you undo the work your doctors put into you.