23 Non - Pharmacological Therapies in Pain Management

Pain is an unpleasant feeling and emotional experience that is related to real or potential tissue damage or a damage that is defined similarly. Pain is mostly subjective (Merskey, Bogduk 1986). From many points of view, the pain is a common symptom intended for seeking aid (Dickens et al. 2002). International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines the pain as “an unpleasant emotional situation which is originating from a certain area, which is dependant or non-dependant on tissue damage and which is related to the past experience of the person in question” (Merskey, IASP 1986). Although there is an increase of knowledge and developments in technological resources regarding the pain, many patients still experience pain (Nash et al. 1999). This situation causes for reduction in living quality and functional situation of the patients, increase in the fatigue levels (Kim et al. 2004) and impairments in daily life activities in working capacity and social interactions (McMillan et al., 2000; Allard et al., 2001). Also this situation will cause loss of workforce and will affect not only the patients but also his/her family members in economical terms thus causing undesired problems in psychological and social well being status (Uçan and Ovayolu 2007). All of these elements have directed both the patients and caregivers to seek for different searches in pain management (Evans and Rosner, 2005). For this reason in addition to the pharmacological treatment options for pain management, today, non-pharmacological treatment options and complementary medical attempts have started to be used (Kwekkeboom et al., 2003; Menefee and Monti, 2005). It is stated that such kind of therapies can be useful in pain management (Uçan and Ovayolu 2007). In a study conducted with the participation of 31.044 adults in United States, Barnes et al. (2004) determined that the usage rate of the complementary methods for the last year has been 36% and back pain and lumbago come first with 16.8% and neck pain comes third with 6.6% in terms of usage reasons of the complementary methods . Sherman et al. (2004) have stated that 24% of the patients with chronic lumbago used massage therapy.