Managing Pain...The Importance of
Individualized Therapy:
What is Pain?
Pain is on of the most common reasons people
consult a physician, yet frequently it is inadequately assessed and
under treated, leading to enormous social costs in the form of needless
suffering, lost productivity, and excessive healthcare expenditures.
Much progress has recently been made in understanding the origin and
progression of pain, yet many health care professionals are untrained in
pain management.
The International Association for the Study of Pain has defined pain as
“an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual
or potential tissue damage.” Acute pain is defined by a recent onset and
transient nature. Examples include post-surgical pain, burns, or bone
fracture, where pain subsides as the injury heals. Chronic pain is
defined by persistence of pain for three months or more beyond the usual
course of an acute illness or injury, a pattern of recurrence at
intervals over months or years, or by association with a chronic
pathologic process. Transitory exacerbations of severe pain over a
baseline of moderate pain or less may be described as “breakthrough
pain.” Breakthrough pain is common in both acute or chronic pain states.
Chronic pain is not a single entity but may have a myriad of causes and
perpetuating factors. Therefore, chronic can be much more difficult to
manage than acute pain, requiring a multidisciplinary approach and
customized treatment protocols to meet the specific needs of each
patient.
