Pain is either a sensory or an emotional experience that gives one an unpleasant awareness related to potential or actual damage in tissues. It is actually a part of the body's defense mechanism wherein a reflex action has been triggered by a stimulus. When the body experiences pain, it serves as a signal to withdraw and avoid from its cause in the future.

Pain is a significant symptom of a variety of health conditions. More often than not, pain may significantly interfere with the person's general functioning and one's quality of life in general. Since it is a distressful and even a disabling experience, many are compelled to seek health care with hopes of eradicating the feeling. In fact, pain is the most common chief complaint for employing clinical interventions.

Factors Affecting the Pain Experience

Pain is highly subjective and differs from one person to another depending on the person's threshold and capacity to tolerate the unpleasant sensation. In addition to that, it could also be influenced by the person's cultural background, tradition, religion, etc. In some societies for example, men are expected to endure any kind of pain while it is expected of women to be intolerant.

Diagnosing Pain

Diagnosis of pain may be based through the identification of its various characteristics such as according to the intensity, duration, source, and location. Because of this, your verbal report of your pain experience has a very high significance. Through it, your health care provider will be able to properly administer and perform the appropriate measures in relieving the unpleasant sensation. Interventions for pain have given rise to the categories of acute pain and chronic pain.

Types of Pain

Acute pain is the kind of pain that is considered as normal. It occurs as an instantaneous reaction to what is happening inside the body or to an outward stimulus. This type of pain subsides even without treatment or may be dissipated by administering simple measures like having a rest and taking an analgesic. However, it may also be intractable and may progress or sustained in an indefinite period of time. This is the type of pain that is distinguished as chronic.

Pain Management

Appropriate measures for pain must be employed in eradicating the cause as well as in controlling the pain that is being experienced by person. Failure to properly treat pain may lead to complications. Thus, pain management is very important. Various fields of science have been conducting studies concerning pain management and each has come up with different modalities in addressing this particular condition. Pain is now being addressed through a multidisciplinary way.

Pharmacology for instance has come up with certain medications that could be taken to alleviate or eliminate pain. There are a variety of drugs ranging from mild to strong ones that are made available to the public that could be used as an intervention for pain management. However, these medications are being regulated because some of them may cause dependence, addiction, or toxicity.

In some cases, the pharmacological aspect of pain management is being with held and other measures are being employed. An example of this is the use of guided imagery in order for a person to have his or her focus on something else rather than on the unpleasant experience. However, the modality of treatment being used varies and depends on what is seen as suitable for the particular case.