Painipedia

Information for and from Pain Sufferers (this site is under development)


Introduction: The World's most untreated and under-treated Disorder

Chronic pain causes exacts a huge toll on those that suffer from it. They typically have depression, stress, fatigue, and can't function well in general. It often destroys their quality of life and creates and extract huge emotional and material costs their family.

Many with pain wrongly believe it is just something they have to live with — an inevitable part of their disease or condition, or aging. In fact, most pain can be relieved with proper pain management.

This site is primary for chronic pain sufferers but is useful for all pain. When a person is diagnosed with chronic pain, they have to learn how to live all over again. Everything. This site is to meet that need.

This reference site was borne out being a witness to so much terrible pain management. Chronic pain patients suffer brutal pain due to inadequate assessment, management, and treatment. Many family doctors are useless at treating chronic pain, veterinarians get five times more education on pain management than people docs. This wiki will help lessen the pain of chronic and acute pain sufferers by giving them knowledge of their conditions. We offer no magic solution's because they don't exist. Instead we offer many small ways to make your pain better. Some will work for you and other's will not.

A diagnoses of chronic pain should treated with the same seriousness as cancer, but it's often blown off by those who have never experienced it. Chronic pain isn't a moral failing, a sign of weakness, a punishment from God, or a sign of a drug-seeker. It affects every part of life: sleep, sex, appetite, social life, mood, work, and even memory. It bad enough to have this terrible struggle with pain but many chronic pain sufferers also have to battle uninformed doctors, insurance companies, workers’ compensation systems, drug companies, and scam artists. These “deciders” are often ignorant chronic pain, empower yourself with knowledge so you can make your own decisions about your own life.

A Few Numbers
- Approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide and 50 million Americans are fully or partially disabled due to chronic pain.
- Compare that to Diabetes 25.8 million Americans, Coronary Heart Disease 16.3 million, Cancer 11.9 million and Stroke 7.0 million.
- 36% of Americans have experienced disabling pain in the past year.
- 56% over 20 have had pain that lasted over 3 months.
- 57% over 64 have experienced pain that lasted over 12 months.

Sometimes pain is a good thing warning us that something isn't right, that we should take medicine or see a doctor. At its worst, however, pain robs us of our productivity, our well-being, and, for many of suffering from extended illness, their very lives. Pain is a complex perception that differs enormously among individual patients, even those who appear to have identical injuries or illnesses. We give real answers to tough questions.

This site is meant to be the voice of people with chronic pain. Contributions are particularity welcome from those with chronic pain. It is hard for you to write, but this a chance for your voice to be heard.

Important Facts
• Research shows that almost 60 percent of older adults with pain have had it for more than a year.
• According to recent research, close to five million Americans report recently taking prescription pain medication in a potentially unsafe way.
• The most effective method that medical science has to measure pain, is it to ask patient.
• The risk of addiction from opiates is usually much overestimated.
• Chronic pain can be a disease in itself.

The Two Faces of Pain: Acute and Chronic
The Medical Dictionary defines pain as "an unpleasant sensation induced by noxious stimuli and generally received by specialized nerve endings." There are two very different types of pain.

Acute pain for the most part, has a physical cause, such as disease, inflammation, or injury to tissues. This type of pain generally comes on quickly, for example, after trauma or surgery. Acute pain resolves when its cause is treated and healing occurs.

Chronic pain is pain that lasts over six months. It may start with an injury or other cause, but it persists even after healing has occurred. Chronic pain is widely believed to be a disease, with known changes in the nerves that get worse with time. Due to its persistence, it causes major problems in every aspect of a person’s life, and is resistant to many medical treatments. A person may even have two or more coexisting chronic pain conditions.

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We welcome contributors. For information on Chronic Painipedia contact Andrew at moc.oohay|0002_jha#moc.oohay|0002_jha.


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