Pain
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.
Types of pain:
Based on the duration of persistence, pain is often divided into two broad categories as mentioned below.
Acute pain:
Acute pain is often a result of injury or
“Pain is much more than a physical sensation caused by a specific stimulus. An individual's perception of pain has important affective (emotional), cognitive, behavioral, and sensory components that are shaped by past experience, culture, and situational factors. The nature of the stimulus for pain can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both.” (Potter, Perry, Stockert, Hall, & Peterson, 2014 p. 141) As stated by Potter et al, the different natures of pain are dealt with differently depending on many factors. Knowing this, treating pain can be very difficult as there is no single or clear cut way of measuring it; “Even though the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue,
Pain is a biological mechanism which aids survival and can be perceived as a warning of damage to the body. (Britishpainsociety, 2014). Pain is multidimensional as it includes psychological aspects, biological aspects and behavioural aspects. Pain is also subjective as the situation plays a part. This is shown in Beecher’s study.
‘Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage’ (International association for the study of pain 2014). Pain can be made up of complex and subjective experiences. The experience of pain is highly personal and private, and can not be directly observed or measured from one person to the next (Mac Lellan 2006). According to the agency for health care policy and research 1992, an individuals self-report of pain is the most reliable indicator of its presence. This is also supported by Mc Caffery’s definition in 1972, when he said ‘Pain is whatever the experiencing patient says it is, existing whenever he says it does’.
Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain
Chronic pain is prevalent problem with significant cost to individuals, their significant others, and to society. In one survey they found that the 12 month prevalence or chronic pain was 37% in developed countries and 41% in developing countries. Before the 1960s chronic pain was viewed as a medical issue that required treatment such as medications and
This type of pain can have severe economic and societal burdens, in addition to the biological, psychological, and social consequences for the individual. It is estimated that individuals with chronic pain miss about five or more days of work per year compared to individuals with no pain (Institute of Medicine, 2011). In addition, the amount of pain related medical care is extremely high. In 2008, pain related medical care alone was found to account for about 14% of all Medicare costs (Institute of Medicine, 2011). In addition, an association between chronic pain and substance abuse, specifically prescription opiate, illicit drug, and alcohol abuse, has also been found (Taft, Schwartz, & Liebschutz, 2010). It is clear that chronic pain has significant costs to the economy. However, these estimates exclude emotional and social costs related to the individuals and their families. Individuals with chronic pain often experience disruptions in ability to work, attend school, and participate in family and leisure activities (Leonard, Cano, & Johansen, 2006). These problems may also lead to an increase in stress which may result in psychological problems such as anxiety and depression, as well as
Pain literally affects all levels of psychophysiological capabilities and influences almost every aspect of a patients’ life, including relationships with others, activities of daily living, as well as their job performance abilities. Pain accounts for an estimated cost of 90 billion dollars in economic resources as a result of disability, lost time from work, and reduced productivity as whole [5].
The American Pain Society (APS, 2008), defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (p.1). According to McCaffery (1968), “pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says is does”. Pain is a complex, multidimensional experience. It is present in all clinical settings and in many different patient groups. It is one of the main reasons why people seek medical attention. Many health professionals involved in pain control (Lewis, Heitkemper & Dirksen, 2004). In order to measure the level of knowledge of medical and nursing staff about pain management in critical care patients and the economic impact I make
Pain is necessary and important. In fact, it is an inborn drive, vital to our very existence (Hebb). Pain prompts us to change something, for instance, to move our hand off of a hot stove. It, therefore, prevents us from causing damage or even death to ourselves. It motivates us to protect an injured area, and the abatement of that pain lets us know when it is safe to use that area of our body again (Doctor's Surgery Center). While pain is a crucial sensation, required for our survival, it’s no secret that in our day to day lives we want to avoid it at all cost. Pain doesn’t feel good. Therefore, if we can avoid it, we will.
The subjective human response to acute pain is a response that is most often self-reported and is dependently measured on a pain scale by health care providers. The phenomenon of pain is that it sometimes is difficult to manage without the perplexities of the typical opioid analgesic side effects. More than often, these accompanying side effects Hoffman et al. (2011) state the inclusion of sedation, constipation, nausea, and cognitive disorientation. In addition, repeated use of opioid analgesics gradually decline in effectiveness without dosage adjustments and can lead to a state of tolerance with ultimately a reliance of opioid dependency (Hoffman, et al. 2011). Non-opioid analgesics may compliment opioid analgesics, however, the
Pain is commonly defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage (International Association for the Study of Pain, 2015). Acute pain is associated directly with underlying tissue damage and pain receptor activation, and it fades as tissues heal. It is associated with an identified cause (such as injury or disease) and responds to treatment. Pain becomes chronic if it extends after the expected healing time. Chronic pain is a condition, where the cause may not be identifiable, and often persists despite treatment. Pain is generally classified as “chronic” if it persists more than three months after the identifiable medical event.
Chronic pain is a significant health problem worldwide. Approximately 19% of the European population suffers from one or more kinds of chronic pain. The origin of most of the chronic pains is musculo-skeletal system and joints. A chronic pain is usually moderate to severe in intensity, lasting more than six months in duration and occurring at least two times a week (Breivik et al., 2006). This duration and intensity has a profound effect on the behavioral, economic, and psychological aspects of the individual and society. A Finnish study revealed almost 30% of the medically certified leaves lasting more than 2 weeks to be due to chronic painful experiences. The same study stated that chronicity of painful conditions has frequently led to early
Pain is described as a process instead of a sensation. Pain can be influenced by decreasing sensory inputs, and changing behavioral-cognitive factors. It was no longer necessary to differentiate between organic and psychogenic pain. GCT is to be utilized as a multidisciplinary approach in pain management along with CBT and pharmacological interventions. Defining pain from a psychological perspective, it can be agreed that pain involves a physiological stimulus. The presence of a physiological stimulus cannot determine the pain behavior. The impact of an individual’s mood, cognition, culture, social, and environmental influences need to be considered to view the totality of the individual and pain management as a complete concept.
We all know that pain is invariably unpleasant and can be experienced from the stimuli which cause peripheral tissue damage. However, people can also experience pain without any signs of peripheral tissues damage in parts of their body which do not exhibit any sign of trauma or disease. The intensity of pain has known to be vary between different individual and is often influenced by previous experience, individual’s beliefs and knowledge, fear and anxiety, sex, culture, age and so on (Butler & Mosely 2013). Pain is pointed out as more than just a sensation as it is also an emotional experience. It can influence both mental states and behaviour response or in oppose, an emotional experience can influence the pain output. Therefore, the following part of the essay, we will be discussing about two clinical conditions and their underlying pain mechanisms where for one of them, the degree of pain relates well to the extent of the peripheral tissue damage or pathology and for another, the degree of pain does not relate well to the peripheral tissue damage or pathology follow by appropriate physiotherapy management programmes relatively (Craft & Gordon 2015).
According to International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), globally, it has been estimated that 1 in 5 adults suffer from pain and that another 1 in 10 adults are diagnosed with chronic pain each year. Moreover, according to a recent (2014) article in the Journal of Pain, chronic pain is the most prevalent and disabling condition affecting at least 100 million Americans. It is also the most expensive public health condition with annual cost to society exceeding that of combined costs of diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Then, we have set of diseases that follow chronic pain. This