Acute & Chronic Pain: What’s the difference and how do we manage them?
Pain takes many forms, from sudden jolts of acute pain to the relentless discomfort of chronic pain. Understanding the difference between the two is crucial, and we’re here to help you understand and get to the bottom of what’s causing the pain you may be experiencing.
Acute Pain
Acute pain is typically characterised by its sudden onset of symptoms and is often a response to an impact-based injury or a medical condition. It’s your body’s way of alerting you to potential harm or damage. This type of pain is generally short-lived, lasting for a few minutes to several weeks, depending on the underlying cause. Its intensity can range from mild to severe, but it tends to be predominantly focused on the area of injury or damage. The pain typically lessens as the body heals and often responds well to pain-relieving treatments and medications.
Acute pain can be described as a sharp, intense pain often felt in a specific area. . It’s a natural response that serves a crucial purpose in protecting your body and is a critical survival mechanism. By alerting your body to potential danger and triggering a fight-or-flight response, it helps protect you from further harm and allows for fast intervention and healing time.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is a complex and persistent form of discomfort that lasts for an extended period, typically longer than three months. Unlike acute pain, which serves as a natural alarm system, warning the body of imminent danger or injury, chronic pain often lingers for a long while after the initial injury.
Chronic pain often persists for an extended period, sometimes indefinitely. This long-term nature is what sets it apart from acute pain, which generally subsides as the body heals. It’s often a constant presence in a person’s life. It may be steady or fluctuate in intensity, but it rarely vanishes entirely. This type of pain is also highly complex, involving not only physical sensations but also emotional and psychological components. This means it can be a contributing factor leading to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
The most common causes of chronic pain include; chronic medical conditions, injuries, nerve damage, autoimmune disorders and psychological factors. Understanding chronic pain and its numerous possible causes is vital as this type of pain can result from a wide range of medical conditions and injuries.
Importance of an official diagnosis
Properly diagnosing pain, whether it’s acute or chronic, is crucial for effective management and treatment. An official diagnosis not only ensures the appropriate treatment of pain but also allows for early intervention and prevention of chronic conditions when possible.
As Chiropractors, we play a vital role in this process. With our extensive knowledge, experience and equipment, we can assess and differentiate between the two pains accurately and efficiently. This differentiation is crucial as both types of pain require different approaches.
A misdiagnosis may result in insufficient pain management. For example, if a chronic condition causing pain is mistaken for acute pain. The treatment may focus more on short-term pain relief rather than addressing the underlying issue and working out a long term management plan. Alternatively, if acute pain is misdiagnosed as chronic, patients may undergo unnecessary tests and treatments, which can cause additional stress.
Treating and Managing your pain
Understanding and diagnosing your pain and its cause early on will ensure you receive the correct treatment and will rapidly increase your recovery time. Acute pain serves as a warning sign that something is wrong, so a swift and accurate diagnosis can lead to timely treatments that prevent the progression of a condition into chronic pain.
On the other hand, recognising and addressing chronic pain will aid us in improving the quality of life for those affected. It often requires a multidisciplinary approach, involving ourselves and sometimes other support specialists to manage both the physical and emotional aspects of chronic pain effectively.
As chiropractors, we diagnose and differentiate between these pains daily and work together with you to understand your pain and create a bespoke management or treatment plan to ensure a speedy recovery. As truly understanding the pain that you’re feeling means you can start to recover. With our bespoke treatment plans, you can rest assured you’re in the right hands for your pain management.
If you’ve recently experienced an acute pain incident or are experiencing long term pain, please arrange an initial consultation with one of our professional team members, so we can help you treat and manage your pain.
