Central and Widespread Pain course

This session provides an overview of the most common chronic pain conditions.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Identify the causes of widespread pain syndromes
• List the common presenting features
• Explain the diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia
• Describe the multimodal management approach

Several disease processes and lesions in the brain and spinal cord can cause central pain. Some well-defined conditions, e.g. Parkinson's disease, can have pain as part of the presentation and should be managed according to local protocols. They are beyond the scope of this session. This session specifically examines the chronic widespread conditions of chemotherapy-induced and radiation-induced peripheral neuropathy, central pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgia encephalitis, fibromyalgia, bladder pain syndrome and myofascial syndromes.