Chronic pain was originally defined as pain that has lasted 6 months or longer. It is now defined as pain that persists longer than the normal course of time associated with a particular type of injury. This constant or intermittent pain has often outlived its purpose, as it does not help the body to prevent injury.

Causes

Chronic pain is essentially caused by the bombardment of the central nervous system (CNS) with nociceptive impulses, which causes changes in the neural response. The pain subsequently provokes changes in the behavior of the patient, and the development of fear-avoidance strategies. As a result, the patient may also become physically atrophied and deconditioned. However, it is important to remember that chronic pain is multifactorial, with the underlying biological changes affecting physical and psychosocial factors.

Types

This article discusses chronic pain in two categories: malignant and non-malignant.

• Pain associated with malignancy can be caused by the cancer itself or by treatment.
• Non-malignant pain includes a variety of causes: arthritis, neuropathy/neuralgia, back pain from injury or disorders (cervical stenosis, degenerative disc disease, other disc disorders, etc), migraines and other types of headaches, abdominal pain from chronic pancreatitis, bowel disorders, etc; pelvic pain from various conditions (endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, etc); and also diffuse conditions such as fibromyalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, lupus and other systemic autoimmune/connective tissue conditions, multiple sclerosis and some other neuromuscular conditions.

Chronic pain can occur anywhere in the body; this list includes only a few examples of conditions that can cause chronic pain.

Post Operative Chronic Pain

Post operative chronic pain is often over looked.^{[citation needed]}. This is distinct from the initial discomfort of the surgery itself or the temporary numbness or tingling around or near where the operation was performed caused by the severing of nerves within the skin. In contrast, Post Operative Chronic Pain occurs when the nerves regenerate, but with the neurones growing back into the wrong nerve fibres resulting in messages being crossed over and sent to the wrong part of the brain. Hence a light touch may result in a perceived sense of pain or temperature change. There are no tests or scans to confirm this, as the nerves are tiny and do not show up, but it is a very real problem and can cause a person to be incapacitated with pain for which standard analgesics fail to help.

The most common symptoms are a tingling sensation near or around the area where the operation was performed, sharp shooting pains, severe aches after much movement, constant 'low ache' all day and sometimes a general 'weak' feeling.^{[citation needed]}

Management

Chronic pain is often more difficult to treat than acute pain. Expert physician care is generally necessary to treat any pain that has become chronic and usually involves a multi-disciplinary team which may include a combination of physiotherapists, psychologists, counselors, and specialists, such as cancer or palliative care nurses for cancer or physicians who specialize in spine medicine for back pain. Depression is common for patients with chronic back pain, and it is important to treat both the pain and depression (Depression and chronic back pain).

In managing chronic pain and in choosing which pain killers to use, beneficial analgesic effects must be balanced against any suffered drug side-effects if overall quality of life is to be improved. For example, with opioids, patients may need to adjust the dosage to reach a compromise between actual pain-killing effect and an acceptable level of nausea or constipation.

Opioid analgesia

When opioids (also called a narcotic or painkiller) are used for prolonged periods drug tolerance, chemical dependency and (rarely) psychological addiction may occur. Chemical dependency is somewhat common among opioid users; however, psychological addiction rarely occurs. Apparent drug tolerance to the pain-relieving effects of opioids may occur. This may be confused with progression of the underlying disease in cancer patients, back pain patients and other chronic pain sufferers, rather than an actual decrease in efficacy of the drug.

Pain modifiers

Drugs within this class act centrally on the brain to down regulate the perceived painful stimulus. Drugs having this effect were fortuitously identified whilst being used to treat unrelated conditions. The first such group were the tricyclic antidepressants (in particular amitriptyline) and the dose required is far lower than that used to treat depression. Similarly some of the anticonvulsant drugs are used for this (in particular carbamazepine sodium valproate and gabapentin). For most of these drugs, their use in chronic pain management is off-label.

Trigger Point Injections / Core Blocks

(Excerpt from Chronic Pain written by patient undergoing this treatment) Only recently has research been undertaken to try and find more permanent solutions for these debilitating conditions. One method that has been formulated is Trigger Point Injections which are also sometimes referred to. This involves the injection of a mixture of steroid and anaesthetic into the specific pressure points in the body where the pain is located in an attempt to disburse contracted tissue that could be causing the disturbance.

There has been some success treating cases of migraines, back pain, and other muscular associated situations with this procedure.^{[citation needed]} If they are able to isolate the centers that are the focal points of the pain then a series of treatments are started. In theory as the treatment progresses the nerves are released from the pressure that is causing the continual transmission of the pain signal to the memory centre of the brain. This in turn should allow the brain to forget the pain.

At this time these procedures are starting to become readily available in North America. In the United States these procedures are showing very promising results with patients according to the Chronic Pain Association of America.^{[citation needed]} Insurance companies are gradually starting to cover the costs of the procedures because the government has recognized their validity, based from the outcome of many completed studies and regimens of injections. This also means that the procedures are now regulated so you do have a guarantee that the standards of the Core Block are being maintained.

Although the procedure is covered by provincial health programs in Canada it can only be done by anaesthesiologists in a hospital situation. Since not all doctors in that field even perform this procedure, the wait time to get into a pain clinic in Canada can be as high as sixteen months.

See also

• Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator

External links

• Managing Pain Before It Manages You. Rev ed.
• Lower Back Pain Answers
• American Chronic Pain Association
• Chronic Pain as a Disease: Why does it still hurt?
• Stress Related Chronic Pain
• American Pain Foundation
• Chronic Pain - a personal story - a Christian perspective that may not suit all people living with Chronic Pain
• Chronic Pain Relief - strategies for coping with chronic pain. This is a Christian site that may not suit all people living with Chronic Pain