Living with Pain is Not Living

Acute Pain and Chronic Pain Pain is a regular phenomenon experienced by almost every individual in daily life, whether acute or chronic. Pain is a common reason for patients to seek healthcare and to be admitted to hospitals. By understanding the nature of pain, it is possible to work with a doctor to get the necessary treatment. A good start to understanding pain is by knowing the difference between acute pain and chronic pain. Acute and chronic pain are two different entities. Acute pain is triggered by a certain disease or injury. It usually serves a useful biologic purpose. It is associated with skeletal muscle spasm and sympathetic nervous system activation and is actually self-limited. Chronicpain , on the other hand, may be considered a disease state. It refers to pain that outlasts the normal time of healing, if associated with a disease or injury. Both acute and chronic pain are an immense problem in the United States. Acute pain is the unpleasant sensory and em...

"Pain has two general categories; acute and chronic. Acute pain signals injury and generally resolves itself in less than 30 days as a person heals.  Chronic pain refers to pain persisting longer than three months.  It can last months to years.  Chronic pain can be mild to severe, annoying to debilitating, and continuous to intermittent.  Chronic Pain Syndrome (CPS) is a common problem that presents a major challenge to patients and health-care providers because of its complex nature. Approximately 35% of Americans have some element of CPS.   Nearly 100 million people are affected directly or indirectly and are partially disabled or totally disable due to Chronic Pain.  The cause of CPS can be injury, infection or ongoing disease.  In many cases, the cause of the pain is idiopathic, or unknown. Some of the major causes of CPS include arthritis, headache (especially migraines), low back pain, cancer, joint pain, and neuropathy or nerve pain....