Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain– The Basics

Pain is noted to be an unpleasant emotional and sensory feeling or experience that is related to physical damage. This is usually used in conjunction with actual damage within the tissues. Individuals experience pain in certain injuries such as tissue trauma. Sometimes, this can also be due to underlying diseases or illnesses. Pain is one of the reasons why we choose to seek for health care services.

Pain is usually categorized according to location and its duration. One of the basic categories underlying pain is chronic pain. Chronic pain is an intermittent condition wherein the pain persists beyond the assumed healing time. This type of pain usually lasts for 6 months or more in some instances. This is seldom connected to a specific injury. Chronic pain can be very difficult to treat due its unclear point of origin or cause. This may be chronic back pain, chronic pelvic pain, chronic neck pain and the like. Chronic pain usually poses a serious problem that would require an immediate treatment and alleviation.

Like the other types of pain, chronic pain has a series of adverse effects. Sometimes immune-compromised individuals may develop certain tumors in relation to chronic pain. Most of the time, this type of pain usually results in deep depression and sometimes disability.

To alleviate such condition, a patient experiencing chronic pain is usually given large quantities of medications aimed at specifically relieving the pain. Although administration of large doses of pain relievers may affect our liver functions, failure to give pain relievers would result to an even worse condition as consequences of unrelieved pain may develop. Pain felt at an extended amount of time will result into permanent disability.

There are different ways involving chronic pain management. The most common approach in dealing with this type of problem is through pharmacologic interventions or through administration of pain relievers. There are many types of medications aimed at controlling the pain experienced by the individual. The most common medication given to relieve pain is Tylenol (acetaminophen). This certain drug doesn’t have any anti-inflammatory effect unlike the other pain controlling drugs. It is very safe when used appropriately but is also known to have dangerous potentials if used excessively.

Another type of pain medications are NSAIDs (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). However, the action of this type of drug is very limited in treating chronic pain due to the fact that this can cause stomach problems. Narcotics are another type of drug aimed in relief from pain. It is very effective in treating pain but it has side effects of dependence and tolerance, thus needing careful monitoring. Other drugs which can relieve chronic pain include corticosteroids, anti-convulsants and local anesthesia.

Overall, the treatment of chronic pain isn’t immediate and can’t be accomplished with one dose of medication only. The most effective way in dealing with chronic pain is through cooperating with your physician and trying to attack the pain from different angles of approach. Different kinds of medication have different drug actions on different individuals. So, consulting your physician more often is certainly the best way to solve such problems.

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