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Idiopathic Breakthrough Pain

A New Hypothesis

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Abstract

Breakthrough pain (BTP) in treated patients with chronic pain states is neither well defined nor well understood. BTP is generally defined as a transient exacerbation of pain experienced by a patient with relatively stable and adequately controlled baseline pain. It is usually categorized as spontaneous, with no known cause, or incident, when initiated by voluntary or involuntary movements, or therapeutic procedures. Since pain is related to survival, it possibly cannot be completely and permanently controlled. It is hypothesized that glia are at least partially responsible for inducing pain spikes by attempting to reactivate unresponsive neurons. Therefore, compounds that modulate microglia may offer potential alternative therapeutic options in the control of idiopathic BTP.

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Acknowledgements

The author declares no conflicts of interest related to the contents of this article. The author thanks Antonello Gatti and Massimo Mammucari for teamwork and scientific support. He also thanks Paul McCormack of inScience Communications, a Wolters Kluwer business, who provided English-language and editorial assistance in the preparation of this article. This assistance was funded by Molteni Farmaceutici, Inc, Italy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Emergency Care, Critical Care Medicine, Pain Medicine and Anaesthesiology Department at Tor Vergata Polyclinic, University of Rome - Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Alessandro Fabrizio Sabato

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  1. Alessandro Fabrizio Sabato
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Correspondence to Alessandro Fabrizio Sabato.

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Sabato, A.F. Idiopathic Breakthrough Pain. Clin. Drug Investig. 30 (Suppl 2), 27–29 (2010). https://doi.org/10.2165/1158410-S0-000000000-00000

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