What is Episodic pain - Meaning and definition

Published by Roberto Wenk. Reviewed by Alison Ramsey. Last updated date: November 20, 2018.

Is a transitory exacerbation of pain that changes with time.
It can be classified in three subtypes:
- activity and movement-related (incident)
- spontaneous
- end-of-dose failure

Episodic pain is the term agreed by the EAPC that translates better into different languages.

Bush SH. Textbook of Palliative Medicine. London, Hodder Arnold, 2006. pp. 505-511.

Published by Roberto Wenk. Last updated date: June 27, 2016.

A transient exacerbation or recurrence of pain in someone who has mainly stable and/or adequately relieved background pain.
Patients with inadequately relieved background pain are excluded because this suggests overall poor pain relief.

Apart from pain that may recur shortly before the next dose of regular analgesic, there are two types of episodic pain:
- Predictable (incident) pain related to activity
- Unpredictable (spontaneous) pain unrelated to movement

Analgesics. Twycross R, Wilcock A (Ed). Palliative Care Formulary. Third Edition, Palliativedrugs.com Ltd, United Kingdom. 2007, pp.209-328.

Episodic pain

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