Acute & Chronic Pain
Pain is a complex symptom that can affect us both physically and mentally. Your response is as individual as you are.
When you feel pain, it is really a reaction to signals that are transmitted throughout the body telling us that something is wrong. These signals are sent from the pain source, through the nerves in the spinal cord to your brain. Pain is primarily associated with physical injury, but since pain is a perception, it’s not a reliable guide to the location and extent of an injury (see referred pain).
Acute Pain
Acute pain is an unpleasant sensation, from discomfort to agony and usually associated with a well-defined cause. It’s limited in its duration and usually terminates when healing has occurred. Most acute back pain follows an injury or overuse. With medical care and the body’s amazing power to heal itself, such pain normally stops, tapers off or disappears.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is something quite different. It persists, sometimes for weeks, months or years, after the injury or infection that initially caused it, has healed. Even more destructively, it may have no apparent cause or reason and no particular condition to which it can be attributed. Trying to cope with chronic pain can change your life.
Referred Pain
As already mentioned the brain’s ability to map pain is sometimes poor. In some instances a local injury source sends messages to the brain which then interprets it inaccurately and misrepresents this pain in the form of a more generalized regional pain called ‘referred pain’. This is why a localized injury in the lower back (lumbar spine) can cause extremely painful pain down the leg (sciatica).
What to Do?
While acute pain can get you down, it is not generally as depressing in the way that chronic pain can be. Most chronic pain sufferers are caught in the vicious cycle of pain-anxiety-tension. Treatment can be difficult and complicated since chronic pain can affect almost every aspect of an individual’s life. Many people suffer chronic pain unaware of a variety of treatment options that can help them live more normal lives.
It is important to try and remain positive and seek appropriate medical advice. It is important to remember that acute pain can easily become chronic if not managed appropriately by yourself and allied medical professionals. Be proactive and seek guidance.
