Types of pain essay

Pain is the signal of distress sent by the body; it is hard to define pain in a precise way though. One of the definitions of pain is the following: “the feeling of suffering or agony, caused by stimulation of specialized nerve endings” (Rosdahl & Kowalski, 2008, p.704). According to the classification of the International Association of the Study of Pain, it is possible to identify three different types of pain: acute pain, chronic pain and cancer pain (Parsons & Preece, 2010).
Acute pain, also referred to as nociceptive pain, is described by patients as sharp, throbbing or abrupt pain. This pain mostly occurs as a response to tissue damage or trauma as a result of normal processes in the nervous system (Acello, 2010). This type of pain usually lasts for a short period of time (up to 6 months, but most frequently less than that), and disappears when the damage is treated.

Chronic pain, also referred to as neuropathic pain, lasts for a long time (more than 6 months) and is the result of the damage to the nervous system and/or incorrect processing of the input signals by the nervous system (Laccetti & Kazanowski, 2008). The causes and mechanisms of chronic pain are often unknown or complex. Chronic pain dramatically changes the patient’s quality of life and causes negative psychological consequences, such as anger, anxiety and depression (Rosdahl & Kowalski, 2008). Cancer pain is a specific type of chronic pain which is caused by a certain malignancy in the organism and is very severe.