Chronic Pain can be managed, if not fully curable

 Chronic Pain can be managed, if not fully curable

 

Dipankar Chakraborty 

We so often use expressions like ‘Pain in the neck’ to convey our sense of discomfort and unhappiness. In real life pain in any part of our body can be unnerving and irritating. Some pains are due to physical hurt and get well with time and proper cure. A few others are more nagging in nature and just wouldn’t go despite medication. These are the more serious ones and fall in the category of chronic pain.

Reasons for alarm

According to experts any pain that lasts over 12 weeks should send the alarm bell ringing as it gets set to enter the chronic stage. Underlining the serious implication of various types of pains being suffered by the human body and its adverse impact on mind, the World Health Organization has termed it a problem of global importance.

No urban, rural divide

Quality and affordable public healthcare systems in larger parts of rural and semi-urban areas in India are still a rarity. Though incidents of chronic pain are quite common in urban pockets with a large number of these being lifestyle-related, increasingly more cases of pains are being reported from rural areas of India.

Pain locations

Problems of knee pains, low back pain, generalized body pain, multiple joint pain, pain in legs, musculoskeletal pain in men and women, hip pain, etc. are quite common instances of pains found in both urban and rural pockets of India. Such chronic pains usually occur among people in the age category of above 40 years.

Symptoms

• Relentless pain lasting for months are the first signs of chronic pain.
• Sometimes pain could surface without any rhyme or reason.
• Pain could arise from a previous injury – back-sprain or some illness.
• Sleep disturbance, fatigue, low appetite, mood swings mostly are the fallouts of chronic pain.
• Declining flexibility, stamina and strength hampers physical activities.
• Inability to enjoy things you love doing due to physical limitation may lead to despair and low feeling.

Pain history

For doctors, a patient's individual description of pain, its location and duration are the only way of learning about it and prescribing a solution.

• Description of the nature of pain – sharp, dull, constant or spasmodic, burning sensation, aching, etc. are useful information to get to the bottom of the problem and start the treatment.
• It is important that the patient and health expert work jointly to identify and the causes of symptoms of pain for giving early relief to the patient.
• Despite the use of various technologies for diagnostic purposes, treatment plans have to be chalked out keeping in mind the specific problems and requirements of the patient.
• Active involvement of patients’ close relatives and dear ones helps in the treatment process.

Treatment: goals & methods

One immediate aim of the treatment of all chronic pains is to alleviate the suffering of patients and improve their mobility.

• It is important to know that chronic pain can’t be fully cured, it can be managed and the patient has to live with it.
• There are various ways of treating chronic pain. These are medications, acupuncture, electrical stimulation, nerve blocks, or surgery. Less invasive psychotherapy, relaxation therapies, biofeedback, and behaviour modification are other methods of treating chronic pain.
• For chronic pain, CAM (Complementary or Alternative Medicine) is also found to be useful in giving relief.

Self-management

Doctors also prescribe self-management of chronic pain as the patient needs to think, act and do well in life in spite of his or her pain and become an active, healthy and involved member of the society. Improving communication with healthcare providers is found to be useful in self-management of chronic pain.

Courtesy: Cadabam’s Hospitals

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