While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap -- sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain -- arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself), psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside or outside the nervous system).
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial
Research (NIDCR) National Institutes of Health, DHHS 31 Center Drive, Room 5B-55 Bethesda, MD 20892 nidcrinfo@mail.nih.gov http://www.nidcr.nih.gov Tel: 301-496-4261 |
American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA) P.O. Box 850 Rocklin, CA 95677-0850 ACPA@pacbell.net http://www.theacpa.org Tel: 916-632-0922 800-533-3231 Fax: 916-652-8190 |
American Headache Society Committee for Headache Education (ACHE) 19 Mantua Road Mt. Royal, NJ 08061 achehq@talley.com http://www.achenet.org Tel: 856-423-0043 Fax: 856-423-0082 |
National Headache Foundation 820 N. Orleans Suite 217 Chicago, IL 60610-3132 info@headaches.org http://www.headaches.org Tel: 312-274-2650 888-NHF-5552 (643-5552) Fax: 312-640-9049 |
National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain P.O. Box 70045 Houston, TX 77270 NFTPain@cwo.com http://www.paincare.org Tel: 713-862-9332 Fax: 713-862-9346 |
Mayday Fund [For Pain Research] c/o SPG 136 West 21st Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10011 mayday@maydayfund.org http://www.painandhealth.org Tel: 212-366-6970 Fax: 212-366-6979 |
American Pain Foundation 201 North Charles Street Suite 710 Baltimore, MD 21201-4111 info@painfoundation.org http://www.painfoundation.org Tel: 888-615-PAIN (7246) Fax: 410-385-1832 |
Arthritis Foundation 1330 West Peachtree Street Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30309 help@arthritis.org http://www.arthritis.org Tel: 800-283-7800 404-872-7100 404-965-7888 Fax: 404-872-0457 |
Prepared by:
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892
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Last updated April 24, 2009