Schmerz [antikvár]

Foreword This book is about one of the most important concerns of '^ V i' humankind and one of the foremost factors that has influenced the course of history. As the records of every race and every civilization are examined, one finds ubiquitous , i ' ; . testimonials to the omnipresence of pain. While acute pain , ' . usually serves the useful purpose of warning the individual ; ' of something wrong and prompts him or her to seek medical ' counsel, in many instances it is deleterious to the organism. If not promptly eliminated, postoperative pain and post- : traumatic pain and the pain of myocardial infarction and ' ; ' the associated reflex responses often aggravate the physio-pathology and produce serious dysfunction of respiration, circulation, and other body functions. Moreover, when pain persists and becomes chronic, it imposes severe emotional, physical, economic and sociologie stresses on the patients, the family, and society. Proper control of pain is one of the most important and pressing issues in the world of medicine today. Its importance stems from the fact that acute and chronic pain that require therapy by physicians and other health professionals afflicts about a third of the population of developed countries, and in many patients with chronic pain and some with acute pain it is inadequately relieved. Consequently, pain is the most frequent cause of suffering and disability which seriously impairs the quality of life of many persons through the world. Moreover, although accurate statistics from national epidemiologic studies on the incidence of pain and its impact on the economy of various nations are not available, data from numerous local and regional surveys on the prevalence of various chronic pain syndromes suggest that chronic pain states cost billions of marks annually for health care services and loss of work productivity. Even more important is the cost in terms of human suffering. It is a very distressing fact that in this age of marvelous scientific and technologic advances there are millions of , !