The duration of pain allows us to distinguish acute pain from chronic pain.Â
Pain will be considered normal following an injury, but will become pathological if it persists beyond a certain period of time. In addition, treatments must be adapted depending on whether the pain is brief or continuous.
Acute pain is generally identified as pain that has lasted for less than 30 days while pain that has lasted for more than 6 months is classified as chronic pain. Pain that falls between acute pain and chronic pain is called subacute.Â
Recurrent acute pain is pain that reappears episodically but has distinct episodes. These two distinctions are sometimes difficult to make. Subacute pain will sometimes require treatments that resemble those for chronic pain. Regarding recurrent acute pain, it may require treatment for acute pain during pain episodes, but also treatment for chronic pain to break the cycle of recurrence of painful episodes.
The distinction between acute pain and chronic pain is essential. Acute pain plays a protective and alarming role. It is essential to our survival and allows us to recognize that there is a problem. It is directly linked to a pathology and follows its evolution. Chronic pain, for its part, does not have this protective role and persists even once the triggering event has resolved.
Chiropractor Paris 6 - George Vorniotakis