Glossary of Pain-Related and Complementary & Alternative Medicine Terms

Pain-Related Terms

Acute Pain: Pain that comes on suddenly and lasts only for a short time.
Analgesic: Medication used to relieve pain.
Breakthrough Pain: Pain that appears in spite of the fact that a patient is on pain relieving medication(s).
Chronic Pain: Pain that is constant and is present almost all of the time.
Immediate-Release Medication: Medication that takes effect over a short period of time.
Long-Acting/Sustained-Release Medication: Medication that is released over a long period of time and is taken on a regular basis.
Narcotic: Medication that produces pain relief by depressing the central nervous system.
Non-Opoids: Medication that does not contain an opoid and tends to be available over-the-counter. Examples include Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, and Motrin.
Opoids: Strong pain relieving medication that requires a prescription.
Palliative Care: This is medical care provided by an interdisciplinary team that promotes quality of life and relieves suffering. The goal is to identify the physical, psychological, spiritual, and practical burdens of illness and promote the best possible quality of life for patients facing serious, life-threatening illness. Palliative care occurs simultaneously with treatments that have cure and recovery as their goal. Supporting the whole person and their family in the midst of the struggle can more effectively allow a person to live well, whether the goal is cure or care.
Phantom Pain: Pain that is experienced in a body part that is no longer present.
Somatic Pain: Pain that tends to arise from voluntary muscles in the legs or arms and feels localized to one spot, as well as achy and throbbing.
Tolerance: When the body becomes accustomed to a pain relieving medication so much so that the dosage needs to be adjusted or a new medication needs to be prescribed.
Visceral Pain: Pain that tends to arise from internal organs and feels like squeezing, cramping, or pressure.

Complementary & Alternative Medicine Terms

Acupuncture: This ancient Chinese healing technique uses the insertion of strategically placed fine needles just beneath the skin’s surface with the aim to prevent or cure diseases and illnesses.
Biofeedback: A technique in which an individual learns to consciously control involuntary physical responses, including heart rate, brain waves, and muscle contractions. Information about these normally unconscious physiologic processes is then relayed back to the patient as a visual, auditory, or demonstrative signal.
Biologically Based Therapy: Therapy that includes natural and biologically based practices, interventions, and products, such as herbal supplements and special dietary guidelines.
Breathing: Breathing can be controlled both conciously and unconciously. Conscious attention to breathing is common in many forms of relaxation and meditation, specifically in forms of yoga and Chinese Qi gong.
Energy Medicine: These therapies are based on the concept that human beings conduct a subtle form of energy. Those practicing energy medicine believe that illness results from disturbances of these subtle energies. Work is then done to restore and rebalance the flow of the body’s energy. Examples include Reiki, Qi gong, and healing touch.
Healing Touch: This is a non-invasive technique that utilizes the hands to clear, energize, and balance energy fields. During this therapy, the practitioner and client come together energetically to facilitate the clients health and healing, using heart-centered care.
Hypnosis: A state of consciousness in which a person’s attention is focused towards images, thoughts, perceptions, feelings, motivations, sensations, behaviors, or a combination of these. A hypnotist can train some migraine patients to self- hypnotize in order to reduce stress and related symptoms.
Megavitamins: Large quantities of vitamins taken on a regular basis.
Mind-Body Medicine: Medicine that focuses on the interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior, while considering ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral factors can directly affect health. Mind-body medicine techniques include relaxation, hypnosis, visual imagery, meditation, yoga, biofeedback, group support, spirituality, and prayer.
Manipulative and Body-Based Therapy: Manipulative and body-based methods are based on manipulation and/or movement of one or more parts of the body, including chiropractic techniques, massage, and reflexology.
Meditation: The process of meditation brings about mental calmness and physical relaxation by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. It is used to reduce stress, alter hormone levels, and elevate one’s mood.
Music Therapy: This is the use of music interventions to accomplish any range of goals, including improvement of motor skills, social/interpersonal development, cognitive development, self-awareness, and spiritual enhancement.
Reflexology: This is a form of massage where a practitioner applies pressure to certain parts of the feet and hands to help promote relaxation and healing at specified points in the body. It is a science that believes each part of the body is interconnected through the nervous system via the hands and feet. Practicing reflexology can help restore balance throughout the body.
Reiki: Reiki is the practice of transmitting healing energy through the hands, based on ancient techniques. Reiki uses specific hand positions on or above parts of the body that correspond to the major organs and energy centers, such as the heart or adrenal glands.
Relaxation: A state of deep rest in which the metabolism slows, less oxygen is needed, heart and respiration rates drop, blood pressure drops, and brain waves slow.
Qi gong: A component of traditional Chinese medicine that combines movement, meditation, and regulation of breathing to enhance the flow of qi (an ancient term given to what is believed to be vital energy) in the body, improve blood circulation, and enhance immune function.
Visualization: Creating a mental image of a desired outcome, and repeatedly playing that image in the mind.
Yoga: Yoga is a philosophy and discipline applied to the development of mind, body, and spirit. Through practices of holding a variety of body positions and the centering of the mind and breath in a meditative way, the practitioner increases body awareness, posture, flexibility of body, and mind and calmness of spirit.
Whole Medical Systems: Therapy that uses a combination of complementary and alternative medicine techniques to treat a condition. An example of a combination is Reiki plus meditation and yoga.