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Chronic pain
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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If you are tormented by a feeling of pain for a long period of time and you do not notice any other symptoms or signs of diseases, most likely, this pain is chronic. In medical circles, it is usually called chronic pain syndrome. The causes that cause a constant feeling of pain are often not determined even during clinical studies and various diagnostic measures.
Why is chronic pain called a syndrome?
Since each disease has its own classification and certain patterns in its course, then chronic pain manifestations after careful study could be attributed to the concept of syndrome, which corresponds to certain signs and symptom complexes. There is an established meaning of the term "chronic pain syndrome", which indicates that this can include pain that lasts longer than the usual period of healing or the damage factor and develops according to its own patterns. But how long the pain lasts is not the main symptom that helps to distinguish chronic pain from acute pain during diagnosis. In fact, this is facilitated by completely different biochemical, clinical, as well as neurophysiological and psychological processes and relationships. Chronic pain syndrome occurs when there is an actual change in neuronal pathways as a result of the constant generation of pain impulses. This can provoke hypersensitivity and resistance of neuronal pathways to the influence of the antinociceptive system of our body. All this leads to the fact that the generation of pain signals becomes an obligatory and continuous action of the nervous system.
Diagnosis of chronic pain
Nowadays, there is no single generally accepted practice for diagnosing chronic pain. However, thanks to a small number of standard tests that allow us to assess pain, it is possible to correct it quite effectively with a therapeutic method. As a result of a thorough examination and questioning of a patient complaining of incessant pain, as well as an objective somatic and neurological examination, it is possible to give the most detailed definition and assessment of the pain experienced. Chronic pain is often diagnosed in people who cannot work normally due to severe pain, but, nevertheless, do not suffer from sleep disorders. Or when the pain intensifies during physical activity, and care from others and loved ones, on the contrary, helps to alleviate it. During the diagnosis of pain, it is necessary to very carefully check the psycho-emotional state of the patient, since in recent years more and more specialists are inclined to link the occurrence of chronic pain syndrome and depressive states in one chain.
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Is there a panacea?
In medical practice, it is customary to distinguish between two types of chronic pain:
- Nociceptor
- Neuropathic
Nociceptor pain symptoms respond well to treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics. Such pain occurs as a result of irritation of nociceptors. These receptors are located in internal organs, muscles, ligaments and skin. It follows from this that such pain sensations can be provoked by tissue damage such as stretching or inflammation. They can also occur as a result of trauma or burns.
Neuropathic pain is not amenable to therapy with the above-described drugs, since in this case the pain is not connected with irritation of pain receptors. The cause of its occurrence is considered to be damage to the nervous system.
Today, many types of treatment and blockade of chronic pain have been developed. Among them are conservative drug methods and surgical interventions. By means of epidural and radicular blockade at any level of the spine, most patients get rid of unpleasant sensations that are produced by chronic pain, the source of which was the spinal root as a result of compression. If this method does not work, then surgical decompression becomes an alternative.
In case of persistent pain in pancreatic cancer, neurolytic blockade of the solar plexus is used. In addition, this method is also effective in the presence of pathologies in the lower extremities and abdominal cavity.
Trigeminal neuralgia has long ceased to be an incurable pathology, although some doctors still do not know about it. All over the world, this disease is effectively treated with methods such as, for example, radiofrequency root destruction.
Surgery can also relieve a person from chronic pain for a long time. But, unfortunately, in the post-Soviet countries, many new technologies that effectively cure chronic pain cannot be implemented due to the cost, the need for a special and lengthy process of training the relevant personnel. Remember, if you experience long-term, persistent pain, you should consult a therapist or neurologist.