Science Forums 2

[Michaelangelica]

Pain is central to the human condition.

Without it we would die.

Sometimes with it we die.

Rather than post this in "medical science"
I thought social science has more ways of dealing with pain than medical science
Medical science has 6 or so drugs to deal with pain Social science has dozens of ways of dealing with pain

To start
LiveScience.com - The Pain Truth: How and Why We Hurt

The Pain Truth: How and Why We Hurt
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 31 January 2006
08:19 am ET


Some 50 million U.S. residents live with chronic pain, experts estimate. Pain forces an estimated 36 million of them to miss work every year and results in roughly 70 million doctor visits.

Yet scientists know very little about how pain works. They can't even agree on a definition.

They do agree it's a huge problem.

"Pain is a silent epidemic in the United States," says Kathryn Weiner, director of the American Academy of Pain Management.
Painful Facts

How pain hurts Americans:

* 1 in 6 suffers from arthritis.
* More than 26 million between the ages of 20 and 64 have frequent back pain.
* More than 25 million have migraines.
* Pain costs an estimated $100 billion each year.

SOURCE: American Pain Foundation


The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is colored blue, and the peripheral nervous system (major peripheral nerves) are yellow. Shown are the brain inside the cranium, spinal cord inside the vertebral column, and the spinal nerves coming out of the intervertebral foramen.

Real numbers are hard to get at. A Gallup Poll done in 2000 found that 80 percent of American believe pain is part of getting old, and 64 percent said they'd see a doctor only if their pain became unbearable.
More than a quarter of them figured there is no solution to their pain.

"Pain has significant impact on the pain sufferer and their family," Weiner says. Pain and its treatment "represents a major problem confronting our modern culture."

What is pain?

If you suffer chronic pain, you'll probably find little solace in the fact that doctors and scientists don't understand it very well, and that just popping an aspirin is clearly far form a cure-all.

In fact experts can't even agree on what pain is.

"Pain is complex and defies our ability to establish a clear definition," Weiner says. "Pain is far more than neural transmission and sensory transduction. Pain is a complex mixture of emotions, culture, experience, spirit and sensation."

The American Academy of Pain Medicine isn't much help either. In its online FAQ, under the heading "What is pain?" you'll find this answer: "It is an unpleasant sensation and emotional response to that sensation."

There are several ways to define pain, however, and knowing which you have is important for considering how to treat it.

What we know

One way to divide pain (and perhaps conquer it) is to distinguish between acute and chronic, explains Sally Lawson, a professor of physiology at the University of Bristol in the UK.

Acute pain is what you get when you hit your thumb with a hammer, should you choose to do so. You can also achieve it with a twisted knee or a burn.

Chronic pain is long-term, continuous and far more frustrating. It can result from physical injury, viral infections of the nerve, or arthritic damage to joints and degeneration of bones, Lawson writes.

Scientists also distinguish between evoked pain (use the hammer on your thumb to demonstrate this type) and the spontaneous variety, for which there is no obvious external cause.

One type of chronic pain, called neuropathic, results from damaged nerves rather than the original injury. However, recent research by Lawson and a colleague suggests this pain may sometimes be transmitted by the undamaged nerves.

Not so simple

If it were all that simple, pain probably wouldn't hurt so much. But there's a lot more to it.
. . .