According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with or akin to that associated with actual or potential tissue damage. In 2012, 37% of the adult population in Portugal suffered from chronic pain.
According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with or akin to that associated with actual or potential tissue damage.
Six key points and the etymological origin of the word pain were included in this definition. These are:
- Pain is always a personal experience, which is influenced to different degrees/levels by biological, psychological, and social factors.
- Pain and nociception are separate phenomena. Pain cannot be deduced by activity in sensory neurons alone.
- The concept of 'pain' is something that individuals learn through their life experiences.
- A person's account of a painful experience should be respected.
- Although pain generally plays an adaptive role, it can have adverse effects on function and social and psychological well-being.
- Verbal description is only one of several possible behaviours used to express pain; the inability to communicate does not negate the possibility that a human being or a non-human living being may be experiencing pain.
Acute pain refers to pain that has appeared recently and is likely to be of limited duration, usually as a symptom associated with a condition, acting as a warning sign of the disease that caused it. While it is useful in many circumstances, it is important that it is treated so that it does not perpetuate and eventually become chronic pain.
Chronic pain is persistent or recurrent pain, lasting three months or more, which often remains after the original injury has healed, or exists without any apparent injury.
In Portugal, 37% of the adult population suffers from chronic pain and this is associated with significant repercussions on a personal, family, and social level.*
Source:
*Azevedo LF, Costa-Pereira A, Mendonça L, Dias CC, Castro-Lopes JM. Epidemiology of chronic pain: A population-based nationwide study on its prevalence, characteristics and associated disability in Portugal. J Pain. 2012;13(8):773-83.
