What are the main types of pain?
Acute Pain
Acute pain is a sudden, short-term episode of pain. Examples include pain after surgery or pain from an injury such as a broken bone. Acute pain decreases naturally as your body heals and generally lasts only for hours or days.
Chronic Pain
Pain is called chronic when pain becomes long-lasting, persisting for months or years. Chronic pain does not necessarily follow the natural pattern of improvement with healing. It may come from a medical condition that cannot be cured or is hard to treat. For some people, chronic pain seems to have no clear source at all.
Chronic pain can be frustrating and exhausting. It can interfere with your work, sleep, emotional health, sexuality and your relationships with family and friends.
While dealing with pain is challenging, try not to let it overwhelm you. Feeling overwhelmed or fearful makes it more likely that your brain thinks you are in danger, and it interprets neutral signals from your body as if you might get injured. As a result, fear, anxiety and focus on pain can actually make pain worse.
There is no cure for chronic pain, although it can improve. Like other chronic conditions, such as diabetes and arthritis, it’s a matter of learning strategies to help you live well and manage your condition.
Acute on Chronic Pain
Another term you may hear for pain is called “acute pain on top of chronic pain”. This happens when you have acute pain from an injury, illness, surgery or procedure in addition to an existing chronic pain condition such as arthritis. Your health care provider may adjust your chronic pain care plan temporarily while you have acute pain, but it is important you try to maintain the usual methods you use to manage chronic pain during this time.
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