Non-pharmacological Therapy in Children
The Use of Non-Pharmacological Therapy in Children
The Use of Non-Pharmacological Therapy in Children
Children’s pain is multidimensional with psychological, physiological and behavioural domains, which presents unique challenges in the assessment and evaluation. These challenges require close consideration of the child’s age, prior pain experiences, developmental, cognitive and communication levels. As nurses are responsible in the assessment of children’s pain, it is appropriate to know all methods, and techniques of alleviating this uncomfortable stimuli, thus presenting the clinical question; in children, how can non-pharmacological (complementary/ alternative) methods be more beneficial in pain management compared to non-pharmacological/conventional medicines? The purpose of this paper is to explore how non-pharmacological methods can be useful in reducing pain. The different variations of non-pharmacological interventions, adverse effects of pharmacological medication, economic factors and knowledge deficits related to nurse education of pain management will be discussed below.
Non-Pharmacological Techniques
Non-pharmacological techniques, or complementary therapies are considered as any intervention used for pain alleviation that are non-analgesics or other kinds of medications and can be used with or without pharmacological aid. To better understand how many of these types of procedures are effective on a cellular level, we must look at “The Gate Control Theory”. This theory proposes inhibitory neurons in the spinal cord regulate pain information to the brain. When these neurons are stimulated through pressure or massage they inhibit the transmission of noxious messages to the brain, and “close the gate” meaning they are unable to be processed (Ball & Bindler, 2008) Non-pharmacological techniques can sometime be included in the broader category of complementary, or alternative medicines and can be classified in 4 groups:
The Use of Non-Pharmacological Therapy in Children
Children’s pain is multidimensional with psychological, physiological and behavioural domains, which presents unique challenges in the assessment and evaluation. These challenges require close consideration of the child’s age, prior pain experiences, developmental, cognitive and communication levels. As nurses are responsible in the assessment of children’s pain, it is appropriate to know all methods, and techniques of alleviating this uncomfortable stimuli, thus presenting the clinical question; in children, how can non-pharmacological (complementary/ alternative) methods be more beneficial in pain management compared to non-pharmacological/conventional medicines? The purpose of this paper is to explore how non-pharmacological methods can be useful in reducing pain. The different variations of non-pharmacological interventions, adverse effects of pharmacological medication, economic factors and knowledge deficits related to nurse education of pain management will be discussed below.
Non-Pharmacological Techniques
Non-pharmacological techniques, or complementary therapies are considered as any intervention used for pain alleviation that are non-analgesics or other kinds of medications and can be used with or without pharmacological aid. To better understand how many of these types of procedures are effective on a cellular level, we must look at “The Gate Control Theory”. This theory proposes inhibitory neurons in the spinal cord regulate pain information to the brain. When these neurons are stimulated through pressure or massage they inhibit the transmission of noxious messages to the brain, and “close the gate” meaning they are unable to be processed (Ball & Bindler, 2008) Non-pharmacological techniques can sometime be included in the broader category of complementary, or alternative medicines and can be classified in 4 groups: