Analgesia from a veterinary perspective

The last decade has seen continued progress in both the recognition and management of animal pain. This upsurge in the use of analgesics in animals is welcome, but the main areas of use continue to be the control of postoperative or post-trauma pain, and the management of musculoskeletal pain, in companion animals and horses. The management of pain associated with other conditions, such as soft-tissue inflammation or cancer, is still relatively neglected. Pain management in farm animals, and in animals used in biomedical research could also be improved further. Apart from providing some interesting parallels with pain management in people, development of veterinary pain management has potentially much greater significance. For many years, animal pain management has benefited from the use of analgesics used in man. In the future, it may be that a better understanding of animal pain, and in particular chronic pain states, may lead to translation of therapies in the opposite direction.