"Pain is a silent epidemic in the United States," Dr. Kathryn Weiner, the former director of the American Academy of Pain Management, wrote in a special message on the AAPM website. "An estimated 50 million Americans live with chronic pain caused by disease, disorder or accident. An additional 25 million people suffer acute pain resulting from surgery or accident. Approximately two thirds of these individuals in pain have been living with this pain for more than five years."

Though some pain responds well to treatment and disappears once underlying conditions have been resolved, other cases are marked by ongoing suffering that outlasts the initial cause of the discomfort, and that appears to be resistant to medical treatment.

ABOUT CHRONIC PAIN

To the nonprofessional, the term "pain" can be a somewhat vague descriptor - and an intensely subjective and personal experience - but health care experts have worked to quantify pain according to intensity and severity, dividing the more general category into two distinct types: acute and chronic.

"Acute pain is a direct response to disease or injury to tissue, and presumably it will subside when you treat the disease or injury," Dr. Sharon Hertz of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in an article on the FDA website. "Chronic pain goes on and on - for months or even years." According to the FDA, the following are the most common types of chronic pain:

Because of the persistent stress that chronic pain inflicts, experts have found that afflicted individuals are at a greater risk for depression or for developing a dependency upon, or an addiction to, drugs that they began taking in an effort to ease their suffering.

"Pain is far more than neural transmission and sensory transduction," Dr. Weiner wrote in her director's message. "Pain is a complex melange of emotions, culture, experience, spirit and sensation."

COMPONENTS OF TREATMENT

Though the experiences of some chronic pain patients may have led them to the mistaken conclusion that their conditions are incapable of being remedied, the good news is that experts are continuing to develop innovative, effective means for treating chronic pain.

As Walker indicated, many experts believe that the most effective means for treating chronic pain is to employ a personalized treatment plan that addresses a range of issues:

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH

Obviously, chronic pain is much more than a simple medical condition. And though solid science must be at the core of any successful treatment plan, the respect and dignity with which this plan is put into place is equally important.

At Bayside Marin, a northern California recovery center, every aspect of treatment is implemented in a professional manner that emphasizes the value and significance of every pain patient. According to the Bayside Marin website, the center's efforts to treat chronic pain patients are founded in the following core objectives and philosophies:

Chronic pain can be a particularly insidious affliction, one which robs sufferers of both physical mobility and emotional resiliency. But with the advances that continue to be made in pain management, no one should feel helpless in the face of chronic pain. As the Bayside Marin website advises, "there is no hopeless case ... with the right treatment you can turn your life around."

Chronic Pain Treatment at Twelve Oaks Recovery

Chronic Pain Treatment at Bayside Marin