According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), pain is defined as the unpleasant and emotional experience that relates with the real or possible damage of tissue or it is defined with the definitions of such a fault.
However, pain serves as an important safety mechanism of the human body and leads to:
Usually, the sensation of pain subsides quickly once the painful stimulus is no longer present and the healing process of the affected tissue is complete. However, in some cases, pain may persist, and this is referred to as chronic pain. Examples of such pain include neuropathic pain, pain associated with rheumatic diseases, idiopathic pain, and, of course, cancer-related pain.
The type of pain varies depending on the case and the patient, and it may be described as burning, electric shock-like, stabbing, or needle-like. Visceral pain—that is, pain caused by dysfunction of an internal organ—can be diffuse and difficult to localize, or may also be accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea or vomiting.
At this point, it should be mentioned that pain is exclusively an subjective experience and is affected in many ways by biological, psychological and social factors. Someone’s report of a pain experience should be accepted exactly as described and be always respected.
Pain intensity is difficult to measure, due to the subjective nature of the emotion, as such on each individual case, different scales are used for its assessment.
Numerical assessment scales: Measuring pain from 0 to 10, 0 being the complete absence of pain and 10 being the strongest pain anyone can imagine. These specific scales are useful for measuring changing levels of pain in response to ongoing treatment or for accurately describing a worsening condition.
Verbal descriptive scale: It is mainly used for assessing pain in children, the elderly, or in individuals with autism or dyslexia.
Pain assessment scale with faces: This consists of a series of different faces representing increasing levels of pain intensity, ranging from “no pain” to “very severe pain.” This scale is primarily used for children and individuals with autism.
Brief questionnaire for pain assessment: This is a more detailed questionnaire that measures the impact of pain on mood, daily activities, sleep quality, and how pain affects the patient’s interpersonal relationships.
McGill Pain Questionnaire: This is a widely used multidimensional scale that simultaneously assesses pain intensity, quality, location in the body, and the factors that exacerbate or relieve it.
Pain is the first in frequency cause of search for medical help, is the basic symptom for a lot of conditions and its presence affects, on a big scale, the quality of life, every day activities but also the psychological state of the patient and his family.
It’s significant that patients with chronic pain often also exhibit psychological disorders, such as depression, and when the patient is relieved of the pain through therapeutic pharmaceutical treatment or interventional treatment, the psychological factor retreats and the patient’s self-esteem grows.
