What is Chronic pain?
Chronic pain can be a result from several different
things. Chronic pain can stem from
surgery, malignancy, a range of injuries and disease. Other causes of pain can be headaches or
neuropathic pain.
Chronic pain is a condition that many people suffer
from. Approximately 100 million
American’s suffer from chronic pain.
25.8 million Americans suffer from Diabetes, 16.3 million Americans
suffer from Coronary Heart Disease, 7.0 million from Stroke and 11.9 million
from Cancer.
Pain in the United States costs society about $560-$635
billion annually which equals to about $2000 per U.S. citizen.
Chronic vs. acute
Chronic pain is different than acute care in the sense that
acute pain is a normal sensation that is triggered by the nervous system
letting your body know that there is possible injury that needs to be taken
care of. Chronic pain can last for
weeks, months and even years. There may
be an initial injury which is linked to the chronic pain but sometimes, the
chronic pain arises with no known source.
What effect does pain
have on people?
In a survey conducted for the American Pain Foundation which
was sponsored by Endo Pharmaceuticals, 303 chronic pain patients who had been
prescribed opioid treatment were interviewed.
51% felt they had little to no control over their pain
77% reported feeling depressed
70% reported having trouble concentrating
74% stated their energy level is impacted by their pain
86% reporting difficulty sleeping well
This information was retrieved from http://www.painmed.org/patientcenter/facts_on_pain.aspx#overview
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