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Acute and chronic pain
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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The first type is acute pain caused by tissue damage that decreases as it heals. Acute pain has a sudden onset, short duration, clear localization, and occurs when exposed to intense mechanical, thermal, or chemical factors. It can be caused by infection, injury, or surgery, lasts for several hours or days, and is often accompanied by symptoms such as increased heart rate, sweating, pallor, and insomnia. Acute pain (or nociceptive pain) is pain that is associated with the activation of nociceptors after tissue damage, corresponds to the degree of tissue damage and the duration of the damaging factors, and then completely regresses after healing.
The second type - chronic pain develops as a result of damage or inflammation of tissue or nerve fiber, it persists or recurs for months or even years after healing, does not have a protective function and causes suffering to the patient, it is not accompanied by symptoms characteristic of acute pain. Unbearable chronic pain has a negative impact on the psychological, social and spiritual life of a person. With continuous stimulation of pain receptors, the threshold of their sensitivity decreases over time, and non-painful impulses also begin to cause pain. Researchers associate the development of chronic pain with untreated acute pain, emphasizing the need for its adequate treatment. Untreated pain subsequently leads not only to a financial burden on the patient and his family, but also entails huge costs to society and the healthcare system, including longer periods of hospitalization, decreased ability to work, multiple visits to outpatient clinics (polyclinics) and emergency rooms. Chronic pain is the most common cause of long-term partial or complete disability.
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