Acute Pain

Pain can be classified as acute or chronic. The distinction between acute and chronic pain is not based on its duration of sensation, but rather the nature of the pain itself. In general, physicians are more comfortable treating acute pain, which has as its source soft tissue damage, infection and/or inflammation. It can be modulated and removed by treating its cause and through combined strategies using analgesics to treat the pain and antibiotics to treat the infection. In general, while it is uncomfortable to experience, it is easy to treat; is distinguished by having a specific cause and purpose, and generally produces no persistent psychological reaction. Physicians are more likely to prescribe medications to treat acute pain, particularly in those situations when they are satisfied that they understand the pain's origin and believe the pain will be short in duration. This is why a patient might leave the hospital with two weeks' worth of adequate pain medicine, but the same medications may not be readily prescribed if the patient's pain lasts beyond an expected period of time. It is not the pain itself that is short in duration: it is the diagnosis of "acute pain" and the expectation that it will be short in nature that continues to confuse both the medical establishment and those who experience pain.
The primary distinction is this: acute pain serves to protect one after an injury. Chronic pain does not serve this or any other purpose. Acute pain is the symptom of pain. Chronic pain is the disease of pain.

Acute pain is defined as short-term pain or pain with an easily identifiable cause. Acute pain is the body's warning of present damage to tissue or disease. It is often fast and sharp followed by aching pain. Acute pain is centralised in one area before becoming somewhat spread out. This type of pain responds well to medications, however, there are a growing number of informed people who are not prepared to take prescription medicines and suffer the side effects that are associated with them.

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