Word: chronicic
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...surgery or even a toothache as "acute pain"; it is terrible at the time, but ultimately it passes. For untold millions, however, pain does not pass. It sings on through the night, month after month, overwhelming sleep, stifling pleasure, shrinking experience, until there is nothing but pain. This is chronic pain, and its sufferers are legion: there are more than 36 million arthritics in the U.S.; there are 70 million with agonizing back pain; about 20 million who suffer from blinding migraines; millions more who are racked by diseases like sciatica and gout. Most feared of all, the pain associated...
...told, nearly one-third of the American population have persistent or recurrent chronic pain, according to Seattle Anesthesiologist John Bonica, founder of the International Association for the Study of Pain and a world-renowned leader in pain research. Of these, he estimates, one-half to two-thirds are partly or totally disabled for periods of days, weeks or months, or for life. "Chronic pain disables more people than cancer or heart disease," says Bonica, "and it costs the American people more money than both." His estimate: $70 billion a year in medical costs, lost working days and compensation. The human...
...function. "Uncontrolled pain," Basbaum notes, "is also a disaster." In fact, it can do serious harm. The acute pain that follows surgery can, for example, sometimes interfere with a patient's ability to breathe, as well as contribute to nausea and add to the strain on the heart. Chronic pain often leads to an endless cycle of anxiety, depression, loss of appetite, profound fatigue and sleeplessness, all of which make the pain seem worse. Says Neurologist Kathleen Foley, president of the American Pain Society: "Chronic pain destroys lives...
...simpler times, suffering like Beauregard's would have been attributed to evil influences. While early man had no trouble comprehending acute pain caused by injury, chronic pain was relegated to the occult realm of medicine men, sorcerers and shamans. Ancient Egyptians believed that chronic pain was caused by spirits, gods and the dead, but by the 16th century B.C. they had discovered a corporeal way to treat it. Opium is recommended as an analgesic in the Ebers Papyrus, an early reference work listing nearly a thousand prescriptions used in the times of the Pharaoh Amenhotep. Egyptians and some Eastern...
...many cases of chronic pain, the patient has something material or psychological to gain from suffering. Seattle Psychologist Bill Fordyce cites the case of a woman who developed lower-back pain when her physician-husband retired, perhaps so that he would still have someone to treat. Studies have shown that individuals with a pending lawsuit seeking compensation for injuries rarely get better until the suit is settled...