Pain management

Pain, according to the International Association for the Study of Pain, is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.

Pain is highly subjective, meaning each individual will experience pain differently depending on personal experiences and pain tolerances. Pain is often categorised into three stages:

1. Acute - commonly regarded as the first two weeks after injury and involves a lot of inflammation
2. Sub-acute - sets in roughly between the second week and three month mark of an injury. It includes further peripheral changes such as muscle atrophy from pain inhibition and changes in the muscle physiology
3. Chronic – generally classified as the period from three months and onwards after the onset of injury. This final stage may include central changes, which may cause more complex presentations of symptoms

There are a number of steps you can take to help to manage your pain. Seeking information and educating yourself about your condition is the most important step to better self-manage your injury and manage your pain.

Physiotherapists are just one of the many resources you can access to get up to date information and advice about your body and conditions. Other than providing you with knowledge about your condition, physiotherapists can also apply hands on treatment to facilitate healing and reduce the effects of pain. Physiotherapists are highly skilled to treat conditions with a “hands on approach”, but it is ultimately their goal to promote self-management of your condition.

The most effective method of encouraging self-management is through exercise. Physiotherapists are well equipped to be able to prescribe specific exercises to meet your needs and functional level. It should be the goal of the therapist as well as yours to continue to exercise regularly to manage your pain. It is also common that you may require reviews from time to time to ensure that you’re continuing to improve and that necessary changes are made.

This ongoing exercise together with the knowledge of your condition and pain will help to prevent future episodes from recurring.  Taking control of your own condition is a highly effective means to manage your pain and you will reap the benefits of it in the long run.

Juan da Cal – Physiotherapist, Back In Motion Bribie Island

 

This week is National Pain Week. Visit the National Pain Week website to understand more about pain in Australia.