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HCA UK Outpatients & Diagnostics The Shard, 32 St Thomas Street, London SE1 9BS
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Pain is complex and it’s a very individual experience. We can only describe it based on our own experience as it cannot be measured in a conventional way. Because of this, the same pain felt by two individuals may result in either patient feeling more reactive than the other.
This can make it tricky to treat the cause of the pain. Consultants and GPs use a pain threshold test – usually a scale of 1-10, defining pain as dull or sharp, the persistence of pain and its location to help understand how their patients are perceiving their pain.
Acute pain can be intense pain that usually only lasts a short while. This is the pain that alerts your body that you are in immediate danger, such as burning yourself or cutting yourself on a sharp object. It’s the pain that is short lived to warn you to stop whatever you are doing and focus on solving the cause of the pain. Usually, once the source of pain is removed and the injury has healed, there will be no more pain.
Chronic pain is pain that lasts a lot longer than acute pain (usually more than 3 months). The severity of chronic pain can be on par with acute pain but normally is less so as the patient gets used to it.
Causes of chronic pain arise from injury, such as a sprain. Another cause is ongoing illnesses. But for many, there is no clear cause of pain – it’s simply there. This can affect the patients’ quality of life – including their appetite, sleep disturbance, mood changes and fatigue.
So, how do we treat chronic pain? If the source of the pain is known, such as rheumatoid arthritis of the hand, treatment for that specific condition will help the chronic pain. However, if the source cannot be found, easing the symptoms of pain then becomes paramount. This can vary from nerve blocks, medication, surgery and even self-management programmes. However, since pain is a personal experience, a tailored programme will help identify the best possible treatment for you.
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