Chronic Pain Vs Acute Pain

“Pain is much more than a physical sensation caused by a specific stimulus. An individual's perception of pain has important affective (emotional), cognitive, behavioral, and sensory components that are shaped by past experience, culture, and situational factors. The nature of the stimulus for pain can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both.” (Potter, Perry, Stockert, Hall, & Peterson, 2014 p. 141) As stated by Potter et al, the different natures of pain are dealt with differently depending on many factors. Knowing this, treating pain can be very difficult as there is no single or clear cut way of measuring it; “Even though the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue,

To most people, pain is a nuisance, but to others pain controls their life. The feeling discomforts us in ways that can sometimes seem almost imaginable. These feelings can lead to many different side effects if not dealt with or diagnosed. These effects can include depression, anxiety, and incredible amount of stress. The truth about pain is that it is vital to our existence. Without the nervous system responding to pain, we would have no idea if we were touching a hot stove, being stuck by a porcupine’s needles, or something else that could leave a lasting effect upon our bodies without us even knowing anything about it.

Pain can be acute or chronic. Acute pain is intense, short in duration and generally a reaction to trauma. Chronic pain does not go away, and can range from a dull ache to excruciating agony. Terminal and non-terminal illnesses can both be causes of chronic pain. Tissue damage is not always found in chronic pain, but those who suffer from it are rendered "nonfunctional by incapacitating pain," (Murphy, 1981).

Persistent pain has psychological and social implications for daily life. It can severely limit an individual’s ability to work and be a productive member of society and decreases quality of life. In the face of increasing stigma and barriers to care, patients are struggling to procure the legal medications that alleviate their debilitating pain.

According to The World Health Organisation (1999), defined pain as an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. Pain is traditionally described as acute or chronic pain. The prevalence of chronic pain (CP) is higher than of acute of pain, as it affects 7.8 million people of all ages in the UK (Chronic Pain Policy Coalition., 2006). The current leading cause of mortality that is accounting for 60% of all deaths is due to chronic diseases and is also a problem as causes an increasing burden on the health care service (World Health Organisation., 2007). CP can affect a person’s quality of life if managed poorly, statistics shows that 25% of people lose their job and 22% leads to depression. (Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.,

Chronic pain is described as a persistent pain active in the nervous system for months to even years (WebMD), that can vary

Murray J. McAllister created this website because he had concerns for how chronic pain was being understood and managed in the current healthcare system. There is no uniform or consistency in how chronic pain is being treated among healthcare providers. Many providers also correlate chronic pain to a previous orthopedic injury and not from a nervous system related condition. This poses many concerns

The etiology of chronic pain is complex and may be due to a number of different factors. Current therapeutics often fail to produce adequate analgesia for moderate-to-severe pain

Chronic pain describes pain that persists over long periods of time. It handicaps the normal lifestyle and quality of one’s life (http://www.asri.edu/neuro/brochure/pain1.htm).

There are a variety of pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches in managing chronic pain. These are broken down to six major categories; they are pharmacological, interventional, neuromodulation, physical medicine, behavioral medicine and surgical approaches (1). A coordinated multidisciplinary team approach and detailed patient's history is essential in tailoring a patient-specific treatment plan that will meet treatment goals. A number of randomized systematic reviews found strong evidence that multidisciplinary approach including bio-psychosocial rehabilitation improves functional status when compared with non-multidisciplinary care (2,3). Here, we will focus our discussion on some of the advantages and disadvantages of medical management versus interventional management of chronic pain.

Most medical treatment for chronic pain includes from pharmaceutical treatments for pain management, which can range from over-the-counter medicines like aspirin to prescription drugs. The problem with chronic pain management treatments that involve drugs is that they lose their effectiveness. Worse they actually can create more chronic or that can add to the chronic pain cycle.

Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain

Based on the duration of persistence, pain is often divided into two broad categories as mentioned below.

Talking about chronic pain without telling how it starts will not be helpful. According to Richeimer and Stelligo (2014), chronic pain doesn’t happen to everybody. Some people develop chronically painful conditions in their lifetime while others don’t. Research has shown the difference between people who experience chronic pain compared to those who may not have it is related to genetic and several other factors.

Pain is a basic mechanism in life that helps the body identify that something is wrong or dangerous. Without pain, the body would be severely damaged without realizing it. Pain can become an inconvenience when it spirals out of control; chronic pain, for example, leaves many miserable and unable to enjoy life to its fullest extent even with traditional medical intervention. Around 80% of people report chronic pain in their lifetime (Holtzman & Beggs, 2013). People afflicted by chronic back pain turn to modern medicine for relief, but even these alternatives are not always 100% effective.