The patient in pain

Abstract

Pain has been defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. It is one of the common reasons for anyone to seek medical help and occurs in a wide variety of conditions. It can be either acute or chronic. Acute pain is awareness of noxious signals from recently damaged tissues (somatic or visceral) and is regarded as a symptom or warning signal of some underlying pathology. Chronic pain is defined as pain which persists for longer than 3A months. It can occur in chronic inflammatory conditions, with nerve injury or even when there is no obvious pathology and is sometimes considered as a disease of the nervous system. Unrelieved pain leads to unnecessary suffering and may have deleterious effects in vulnerable populations, while negatively impacting on the quality of life. To adequately manage pain, it is important to assess the patient using a detailed pain history to determine if it is acute or chronic, the underlying pathophysiology, factors that aggravate/relieve pain and the impact of pain on the patient's life. This will help the practitioner formulate a plan to treat the patient holistically using appropriate drugs and take appropriate non-pharmacological measures to alleviate pain and suffering.