Everyone experiences occasional aches and pains. In fact, sudden pain is an important reaction of the nervous system that helps alert you to possible injury. When an injury occurs, pain signals travel from the injured area up your spinal cord and to your brain.
With chronic pain, your body continues to send pain signals to your brain, even after an injury heals. This can last several weeks to years.
Chronic pain can limit your mobility and reduce your flexibility, strength, and endurance. This may make it challenging to get through daily tasks and activities.
Some of the most common types of chronic pain include:
-headache
-postsurgical pain
-post-trauma pain
-lower back pain
-cancer pain
-arthritis pain
-neurogenic pain (pain caused by nerve damage)
-psychogenic pain (pain that isn’t caused by disease, injury, or nerve damage)
-According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, more than 1.5 billion people around the world have chronic pain.
What causes chronic pain?
Chronic pain is usually caused by an initial injury, such as a back sprain or pulled muscle. It’s believed that chronic pain develops after nerves become damaged. The nerve damage makes pain more intense and long lasting. In these cases, treating the underlying injury may not resolve the chronic pain.
In some cases, however, people experience chronic pain without any prior injury. The exact causes of chronic pain without injury aren’t well understood.
The pain may sometimes result from an underlying health condition, such as:
chronic fatigue syndrome: characterized by extreme, prolonged weariness that’s often accompanied by pain
endometriosis: a painful disorder that occurs when the uterine lining grows outside of the uterus
fibromyalgia: widespread pain in the bones and muscles
inflammatory bowel disease: a group of conditions that causes painful, chronic inflammation in the digestive tract
interstitial cystitis: a chronic disorder marked by bladder pressure and pain temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ): a condition that causes painful clicking, popping, or locking of the jaw
vulvodynia: chronic vulva pain that occurs with no obvious cause
Who is at risk for chronic pain?
Chronic pain can affect people of all ages, but it’s most common in older adults. Besides age, other factors that can increase your risk of developing chronic pain include:
having an injury
having surgery
being female
being overweight or obese
How is chronic pain treated?
The main goal of treatment is to reduce pain and boost mobility. This helps you return to your daily activities without discomfort.
Your pain management plan will depend on your symptoms and any underlying health conditions.
Medical treatments, lifestyle remedies, or a combination of these methods may be used to treat your chronic pain.
Medications for chronic pain
Several types of medications are available that can help treat chronic pain.
Here are a few examples:
- Over-the-counter pain relievers, including acetaminophen (Tylenol) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin (Bufferin) or ibuprofen (Advil).
- Opioid pain relievers, including morphine (MS Contin), codeine, and hydrocodone (Tussigon)
adjuvant analgesics, such as antidepressants and anticonvulsants
- Medical procedures for chronic pain
- Certain medical procedures can also provide relief from chronic pain. An example of a few are
- Electrical stimulation, which reduces pain by sending mild electric shocks into your muscles
- Nerve block, which is an injection that prevents nerves from sending pain signals to your brain
- Acupuncture, which involves lightly pricking your skin with needles to alleviate pain
- Surgery, which corrects injuries that may have healed improperly and that may be contributing to the pain
Physical therapy
tai chi; yoga; art and music therapy; pet therapy; psychotherapy; massage; meditation
Dealing with chronic pain
There isn’t a cure for chronic pain, but the condition can be managed successfully. It’s important to stick to your pain management plan to help relieve symptoms.
Continue taking part in your daily activities: You can boost your mood and decrease stress by participating in activities you enjoy and socializing with friends.
Font: Healthline
