Understanding Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is one of the most poorly understood, under-diagnosed and increasingly common conditions in the world.

Its' official definition is, "an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience which we primarily associate with tissue damage or describe in terms of tissue damage, or both".

For the millions who suffer from it, however, it can represent a lifetime of mis-information, uphill struggles, uncertainties, misery and daily suffering for which often the only coping strategies involve the long-term use of drugs and/or alternative therapies.

Why is modern medicine not able to succeed in the successful management and reduction of chronic pain? I believe the reason for this stems from the fundamental principles that underlie it.

The approach of modern medicine is based upon the belief that symptoms represent a sign that the body is not well, and that treatment of the symptoms with drugs will return the body to its balanced state.

Whilst this approach has been shown to work well in the treatment of acute conditions and certain longer term problems that have an identifiable cause, it is failing the battle against many cases of chronic pain.

The problem is that chronic pain is represented not by one symptom, or even an identifiable and consistent range of symptoms, but by a complex spectrum of inter-related signals which vary from person to person, and serve to indicate that the body is exisiting in a compromised state.

By applying the principles of modern medicine to the treatment of chronic pain, we end up viewing these signals as invididual symptoms of an imbalance within the body, which in turn require independant treatment.

Once a chronic pain patient starts to be prescribed medicines and drugs to treat the main symptom, other problems typically become more noticeable (either from a deterioration in their condition and/or unwanted side-effects of the current medication), for which in turn more drugs are prescribed.

The use of medical drugs to alleviate a complex range of symptoms which have no easily identifiable cause was not ever the intention of western medicine, but a lack of understanding and knowledge about chronic pain and what causes it has resulted in healthcare professionals having to make do with available treatments and apply them as best they can to help alleviate the suffering of chronic pain patients.

Unfortunately, the continued use of a concoction of treatments designed for short term use significantly hinders the body from being able to heal itself, and in addition will often result in the patient feeling helpless and trapped in a dead-end approach to pain management.

The only way to break this cycle is to stand back, re-assess the situation, and try to establish what the root cause of the problems is.

By embarking on a treatment plan that is designed to control the underlying root cause, rather than the symptoms, and by ensuring that such treatments work in harmony with your body's own healing abilities rather than against it, we can begin to successfully treat and minimise chronic pain.

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