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.
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.
