Dr. Manuel Blanco Suárez and Dr. Oscar Cáceres Calle, and researcher Paola Zambrano Chacón, from the SHC Medical Unit of Viamed Santa Ángela de la Cruz Hospital, worked on Chapter 6 of the book “Pain. Clinical Assistance”, which deals with Central Sensitivity Syndrome.
The chapter discusses the concept of CSS, physiopathology, the central nervous system, the immune system, mitochondrial dysfunction, intestinal microbiota, the intestinal-microbiota-brain axis, clinical manifestations of CSS, determination of cell activation and sensitisation, treatments and conclusions.
The Directors-Coordinators of the book, Vicente Valentín Maganto, José Carlos Mingote Adán and Manuel López Espino, believe that the early diagnosis and effective treatment of chronic pain, in its different forms, continues to be an unresolved healthcare problem, despite the creation of Pain Units. Pain affects the health of too many people, usually as a complication of acute pain that is neither diagnosed properly nor treated effectively.
Patients with chronic pain suffer a real “ordeal” from check-up to check-up, with growing frustration from the failure to meet their legitimate expectations to receive the professional help they need, which generates despair and high rates of anxiety disorders, depression and sleep disorders, among others.
The enormous costs and suffering caused by chronic pain can be solved if professionals have the appropriate training and skills needed to deal with such clinical cases.
This manual is not a mere clinical guide but brings together the co-authors’ expert knowledge in the hope of contributing to improving the quality and continuity of the care provided to patients, as well as to increasing satisfaction among users and health professionals.