Questions and Answers
About Pain Control

A Guide For People With Cancer and Their Families

American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute


The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute offer Questions and Answers About Pain Control to cancer patients, their families, and their friends. We hope it will lessen your fears about pain and help you understand its treatment.

You may find it helpful to use this as a reference rather than reading it all at once. Remember, it cannot take the place of your doctor or nurse. You should feel free to ask them any questions you have. It is a good idea to write down your questions and to take them with you when you go for your treatment or an appointment. The material in this guide should make it easier for you to talk with those who are taking care of you and thus make it easier for them to help you. Click on the boldfaced words for a complete definition from the Glossary.

Dealing with Pain, sponsored by the Connecticut Division, Inc., of the American Cancer Society and the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, was the basis of the first edition of Questions and Answers About Pain Control: A Guide for People with Cancer and Their Families. Since that time, new advances in pain control have taken place. This guide reflects many of those advances. We wish to thank the many reviewers, people who work with cancer patients daily, for their helpful comments and their assistance in revising Questions and Answers About Pain Control.


Contents

1. Introduction

2. Pain: What Is It?

3. Relief of Pain

4. How To Relieve Pain With Medicines

5. Nonprescription Pain Relievers

6. Prescription Pain Relievers

7. How To Relieve Pain Without Medicine

8. Other Methods of Pain Relief

9. Conclusion

10. Sources of Additional Information

11. Glossary


[Next Section] [Previous Section] [Glossary] [Back to Contents]