Pain management
Pain is sometimes categorised into acute and chronic pain.
What is Acute Pain?
Pain that comes on quickly, can be severe, but lasts a relatively short time.
Acute pain may be caused by many circumstances, including:
- Surgery
- Broken bones
- Dental work
- Burns or cuts
- Labour and childbirth
What is Chronic Pain?
Pain that persists or progresses over a long period of time.
Common chronic pain complaints include:
- Headache
- Low back pain
- Cancer pain
- Arthritis pain
- Neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to nerves)
- Psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside)
How is Pain Treated?
Depending upon how severe the pain is, it may be treated in a number of ways:
- Drug treatments
- Nerve blocks (the blocking of a group of nerves with local anesthetics)
- Alternative treatments such as acupuncture and relaxation
- Electrical stimulation
- Physical therapy
- Surgery
- Psychological counselling
- Behavior modification
Always consult your doctor if you are experiencing pain and need advice on how to control it.
Arthritis
Arthritis is the general term for a number of painful conditions of the joints and bones. Over 9 million people in UK have some form of arthritis. One of the principle symptoms of arthritis is pain coming from underlying inflammation of the joints. As many forms of arthritis are progressive, treatment is aimed at relieving pain and where possible reducing the inflammation process.
Inflammation is the body tissues defensive reaction to damage. Classic symptoms include redness, heat, swelling and pain. If extensive and chronic in nature it can lead to a loss of mobility in the affected joints.