Acute pain
Acute pain is caused by an illness or injury and persists until the condition is healed. Typically associated with the changes of the automatic nervous system activity (changes caused by the action of the nerve cells and fibres which cannot be controlled at will) it is roughly proportional to the intensity of the stimulus. For example, moving a broken arm. Symptoms may include increased muscular tension, blood pressure, heart rate and sweating. Some people may become vegetable-like, with decreased interests, libido, appetite and sleep.
Chronic pain
Chronic pain, defined as pain that persists for six months or more, involves both physical and psychological suffering. Chronic pain problems following acute conditions such as tendonitis, bursitis or low back pain, can develop if the pain cause persists for more than three to six weeks without improvement. The lack of specific techniques in treating the cause, and the resulting inability to prevent weakness, loss of mobility and resultant abnormality, leads to the stiffening of joint structures and then to uncontrollable or intractable low back pain and immobility of other areas. The longer pain persists, the greater the chance that it will travel away from the lesion. This can promote involvement of other areas and mislead the medical examination.
Chronic pain can even be detrimental to human survival. Suicide among patients suffering prolonged, unremitting pain is not unusual.
Chronic pain and excessive surgery It is important to realise that cutting pain pathways, and the usual analgesics, are ineffective against chronic pain. They may actually intensify it! There’s often no adequate way to explain the phenomenon of chronic pain. The patient’s own description and experience of pain, medication usage, the limitation in daily activities, and the use of health care delivery systems, all seem well in excess of those expected on the basis of actual illness or injury.This has been found to lead to unnecessary surgery, which can further complicate the situation with scar tissue and nerve pathway disturbance.
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