Chronic Pain
More than 48 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Chronic pain is distinguished from temporary pain by its persistent or recurrent nature.
This article offers more information about chronic pain, why pain is often undertreated, and what's new in pain research.
What You Should Know About Chronic Pain
Pain is the body's way of telling us something is wrong. Ignoring it or "toughing it out" is not a good idea. Persistent unrelieved pain appears to change the brain's "pain pathways." This leads to a vicious cycle that makes us more sensitive to pain in the future.
Pain may be a component of many chronic health conditions, or its cause may be difficult to identify. Among the most common types of chronic pain are:
- Low back pain
- Bone and joint pain
- Headache or migraine
- Cancer-related pain
- Pain from diseases affecting the muscles
Scientists believe that chronic pain results when pain signals get "switched on" and don't "shut off" properly. This makes the signals stronger and intensifies the pain.
Striking at pain before it starts may be an effective control strategy. Patients given pain medication before undergoing surgery may have less pain afterward and recover more quickly.
Also, taking medication at set intervals, rather than waiting for pain to intensify before taking another dose, may also be beneficial for chronic pain.
Undertreated Pain
Better treatments are available than ever before, but pain continues to be undertreated—especially among older adults, women, and minorities.
Untreated pain can make other health problems worse, can interfere with healing, and may slow recovery from surgery or trauma.
One explanation for the continuing undertreatment of pain is that patients and doctors fear addiction to strong painkillers like morphine and other "opiates."
However, research shows that these fears are unfounded. Most people with chronic pain who take pain medicines as prescribed do not become addicted. Those at risk for addiction tend to have a history of substance abuse or serious psychological problems.
In particularly difficult cases, when conventional therapy does not provide patients with relief, they may be referred to specialized pain centers (also known as pain clinics, pain management centers, pain centers, or pain units). Specialized pain centers focus on specific types of pain, such as cancer pain, migraine, and phantom limb pain. While they are often affiliated with medical schools, pain centers may also be found in your local hospital or medical center.
New Research in Chronic Pain
As scientists achieve a better understanding of the biology of pain, new and more effective pain medications and approaches to pain control are becoming available.
For example, personal "pumps" let patients administer pain medicine as they need it, and surgical procedures may be used to block pain pathways in the spinal cord.
Also exciting: New research about brain mechanisms relating to chronic pain has resulted in development of a new class of pain relievers, called NMDA-antagonists.
These "designer" drugs act specifically on a group of molecular-level "gates" on nerve cells that receive pain signals. Persistent pain causes changes in these receptors, leading to the dramatically lowered pain threshold common to many chronic pain syndromes.
NMDA-antagonists fool receptors into locking onto "fake" signals, rather than the actual pain signals. This blocks real pain signals and interrupts the cascade of nerve cell changes leading to chronic pain.
At least that is the hope: Several NMDA blockers are currently being tested in clinical trials to determine whether they are safe and effective.
This content is brought by Staying Sharp, a partnership between NRTA: AARP's Educator Community and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.
