Pediatric Pain: Current Aspects

Pain in a newborn, child, or adolescent is a complex phenomenon that can be acute or chronic, mild or severe, and invoke complex reactions in the patient, family, and clinician. Pain is a feeling that humans find very unpleasant, seek to ameliorate and even stop as soon as possible. Individuals come to their clinicians seeking the cause of their pain and request ways to deal with their discomfort. Clinicians have not always been well-trained to appreciate or prevent pain in their patients, and this seems especially true for young pediatric patients. The underlying theme in this publication is to consider causes and management of pediatric pain. The authors look at different perspectives of pain including fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathies, sports-related pain, pelvic pain, recurrent headaches, recurrent abdominal pain, dermatologic pain, oncologic pain, and psychosomatic pain. These reflections offer unique and beneficial perspectives for clinicians as they seek to ameliorate pain in their pediatric patients and offer an improved quality of life.