If the child is unwilling or fearful to ask for pain medicines - it's perfectly okay for parents or other caregivers to ask for medicine on the child's behalf. These are very appropriate reasonable questions. Acute pain is usually a rapid onset, varies in intensity from mild to severe, is self-limiting, and is less than six months duration. Acute pain is consistent with sympathetic stress response. These factors include an increased heart rate, an increased stroke volume, increased blood pressure, increased pupillary dilation, increased muscle tension, decreased gastric motility and decreased salivary flow.
Acute pain can also cause the psychological component of pain.
Acute pain must be quickly and effectively relieved before more harm is done to the patient. Opioid analgesics are often the drugs of choice in the management of acute pain. Opioids, or narcotics, act on the body's opioid receptors, which are located throughout the central nervous system. It has been suggested that fear of addiction, dependence, tolerance, and respiratory depression leads to under-treatment with opioids by health care staff. To minimize the risks associated with respiratory depression regular observation of the patient's vital signs is required.