Sedation and Analgesia

Techniques that relieve pain or reduce awareness and anxiety using a sedative or analgesic drug delivered at a dose that leaves the patient responsive or easily roused, rather than a technique that numbs a body region or induces full surgical unconsciousness. This includes sedation broadly and its combined form with pain relief (sedation, sedoanalgesia, twilight anesthesia, conscious sedation, monitored anesthesia care, procedural sedation and analgesia), sedation delivered by a specific route (inhalation sedation, oral sedation dentistry), patient-directed and pre-emptive pain control (patient-controlled analgesia, preemptive analgesia, preventive analgesia), and non-drug or device-based analgesic techniques (audioanalgesia, electroanalgesia). A technique whose defining effect is full surgical unconsciousness or the numbing of a specific nerve, region or skin surface is grouped elsewhere even when it is used alongside sedation.