Question

1. What is the definition of chronic pain?

2. Give examples of chronic pain conditions.

3. What are other symptoms associated with chronic pain conditions?

4. What has been theorized as the pathophysiology of chronic pain?

5. What are some pharmacologic treatments for chronic pain?

6. What are some non-pharm treatments, including integrative medicine techniques for chronic pain?

Answer 1

Ans)1) Chronic pain is often defined as any pain lasting more than 12 weeks.

2) One example of chronic pain is low back pain, which often has both nociceptive and neuropathic components.

Examples of diagnosed conditions in which chronic pain can develop are arthritis and diabetes, cancer.

3) Other symptoms associated with chronic pain:

• headache.
• postsurgical pain.
• post-trauma pain.
• lower back pain.
• cancer pain.
• arthritis pain.
• neurogenic pain (pain caused by nerve damage)
• psychogenic pain (pain that isn't caused by injury, or nerve damage)

4) Pathophysiology of Chronic pain:

- Chronic pain is characterized by abnormal sensitivity, which is due to the generation of pain in response to the activation of the low-threshold mechanoreceptive A beta fibres that normally generate innocuous sensations.

- Three different processes in the spinal cord can account for this dramatic alteration in sensory processing in the somatosensory system: increased excitability, decreased inhibition and structural reorganization.

- All have been shown to occur and each may contribute separately or together to the wide range of chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain disorders.

- The unravelling of the cellular mechanisms involved both offers the potential for developing novel therapeutic strategies, which reduce functional synaptic plasticity and prevent central atrophic and regenerative responses in injured neurones, and illustrates the capacity of the adult nervous system for maladaptive modification.