7th January 2024

Introduction

Pain is a very common symptom associated with a range of conditions. Across cancer as a whole, 75% of patients will experience pain; 1/3 have one pain, 1/3 have two pains, and 1/3 have three or more pains. Knowing about pain management will not only help you in the exam – being confident in this will help in clinical practice.

This section will focus on management of pain in the palliative care setting as distinct from management of acute pain and chronic pain conditions such as Fibromyalgia. Although this section mainly focuses on management of cancer pain, it is worth acknowledging that palliative care physicians increasingly work in the non-malignant setting. Many of the principles will be applicable across both settings.