Both are respiratory infections, but bronchitis affects your bronchial tubes, while pneumonia affects the air sacs in your lungs
Benzodiazepine and opioids – a safety concern. Generally, do not initiate opioid therapy in patients routinely using benzodiazepine therapy. Both drugs are sedating and suppress breathing. Together they can cause a fatal overdose.
In some cases, underlying neurobiologic mechanisms may be overlapping, and more than one pain syndrome may be present.
If your best attempts to get a good night's sleep have failed, prescription sleeping pills may be an option. Here's some advice on how to use them safely.
For such a small gland, the thyroid has a huge influence on both our physical and psychological wellbeing. It affects everything from our heart rate, metabolism, circulation and bone health. It even influences how we think and feel!
Topical agents. Topical NSAIDs and anesthetics are occasionally useful in nociceptive or neuropathic pain syndromes. They can be expensive and are often not covered by insurance.
Pain intensity. A patient’s report of pain intensity provides a subjective gauge of the distraction and interference pain causes in their daily life.
NSAIDs may also increase risk for exacerbations of hypertension, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease. NSAID use in patients with heart disease or its risk factors increases the overall risk of heart attack or stroke.
Buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is a partial agonist opioid that is potent and long-acting. Consider prescribing it when a safer, lower adverse effect profile is preferred over full agonist opioids, or for patients who have developed tolerance to other opioids.
Current psychological interventions for chronic pain are based on recent advances in our understanding of the complexity of pain perception. Pain is influenced by a wide range of psychosocial factors, such as emotions, sociocultural context, and pain-related beliefs, attitudes and expectations.
Self-regulatory and psychophysiological approaches. The experience of chronic pain elicits strong more info physiological reactions that are often accompanied by cognitive thoughts and processes.
Physical therapy. If patients have functional deficits or secondary pain generators that directed therapy may improve, refer them to physical therapy.
Avoid alcohol. Never mix alcohol and sleeping pills. Alcohol increases the sedative effects of the pills. Even a small amount of alcohol combined with sleeping pills can make you feel dizzy, confused or faint.
A successful regimen may combine low doses of different types of pain medications to treat different mechanisms of perceived pain simultaneously, increasing medication effectiveness while limiting the risk of toxicity.