The Pain in the Canon of Medicine: Types, Causes, and Treatment

Abstract

Objective: Avicenna (980–1037 AD) was a renowned physician and philosopher. This study aimed to elaborate on the presentedinformation in The Canon of Medicine about pain, its causes, types, and treatment methods in the pain-related specific chaptersand compare it with today’s information.Methods: The information in the pain-related chapters in The Canon of Medicine was examined. This information was comparedwith the information in the English translation of the book. The information obtained by the correlation between the two workswas compared with the current knowledge.Results: The pain was defined as abnormal condition seen in an animal’s body. The causes of pain were examined as sudden andirregular abnormalities in temperament and interruption of continuity. Avicenna categorized pain and developed hypothesesabout the cause of each type of pain. The application of Avicenna’s pain treatment is based on the use of methods that act inopposition to the elements that cause loss of temperament and continuity. He prescribed analgesic agents, anesthetics, and antispasmodics for the pain relief.Conclusion: Although the effect of the pain-related theories of Hippocrates and Galen are also visible in The Canon of Medicine, hiswork contains much more detailed information about the definition, types, causes, and treatment methods of pain. The definitionshe made in The Canon of Medicine about the classification of pain are found in many of the pain assessment scales used today. Hisdescriptions of drug and dose selection are similar to those of modern pharmaceutical principles.