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Not all pain is the same. Just ask anyone who suffers from a chronic pain condition. But even in the broader category of chronic pain, there are several kinds of chronic pain. And treating different chronic pain requires different strategies. That’s why understanding the different kinds of pain and what to do about them is important to finding relief.
Types Of Chronic Pain
There are actually many different kinds of pain, based on where the pain is in your body and what’s causing it:
Neuropathic. Neuropathic pain originates in the nerves. Of course, all pain is actually transmitted through the nervous system. The pain transmits signals through the nerves in response to injuries. But in cases of chronic neuropathic pain, the brain often sends pain signals because the nerves themselves are damaged.
This is often the case with things like diabetic nerve pain, which causes a burning or tingling sensation through the limbs.
Somatic. Somatic pain is the result of damage to the soft tissue throughout the body. These tissues have high concentrations of nerve endings, which can make somatic pain exceedingly severe.
Things like arthritis or tension headaches are a good example of somatic pain.
Visceral Pain. Visceral pain originates in the organs inside the body. Visceral pain is often hard to locate because the nerve endings inside the organs are less condensed than the nerve endings near the skin. Thus, visceral pain can seem dull or throbbing rather than the acute pain of a condition like arthritis.
Common forms of visceral pain are things like endometriosis.
Idiopathic Pain. Idiopathic pain is pain that seems to derive from no obvious cause. That’s not to say that idiopathic pain isn’t real. It just means that doctors can’t determine what is causing it. It’s possible that you might be diagnosed with idiopathic pain and then eventually be able to have a doctor nail down what’s causing it. Or you might suffer from idiopathic pain for years and never really understand why.
And of course, fibromyalgia is a significant example of idiopathic pain.
Obviously, the type of pain you’re suffering from determines how you treat it. And different chronic pain requires different solutions in most cases. But there are a few general things you can do.
How To Treat Different Chronic Pain
First, the most obvious solution is to get treatment for the underlying condition that’s causing your pain if it is treatable. For conditions like arthritis, there are surgical procedures that can go a long way to reducing your pain, like a joint replacement.
Often, surgery is only an option for somatic pain as it is the only type that usually has a physical injury or condition behind it that can be resolved through surgery. For most other types of pain, medication is the only real treatment option.
Some of the most commonly prescribed medications for treating somatic pain are opioid pain relievers. These drugs work by dulling the receptors in your brain that process pain signals. Recently, these medications have become more difficult to get. The number of overdose deaths from these medications has been rising over the past few years in much of the world.
This has led to what many call an epidemic. As a result, many lawmakers have pushed for stricter controls on when doctors can prescribe opioids. That means that relying on opioids for controlling pain has become a less viable option.
And while this has undoubtedly saved a number of lives, it makes it difficult for people who need these medications to get them. Not to mention, that opioids are often one of the only effective medications for the other types of pain like visceral and idiopathic.
And idiopathic pain is the most difficult kind of pain to treat for obvious reasons. Doctors don’t know what causes idiopathic pain, and so developing an effective medication to treat it is often a matter of trial and error. Fibromyalgia is a good example of this. We’ve established that along with opioids, antidepressant SSRI drugs are some of the only drugs that are effective for fibromyalgia.
Yet, these medications are largely ineffective for a lot of people. And the treatment for fibromyalgia varies widely from doctor to doctor and patient to patient. Unfortunately, we don’t have that many effective ways of dealing with chronic pain. But seeing specialized doctors is always a good way to start.
So let us know, do you suffer from chronic pain? What type of pain? What do you do to treat it? Tell us in the comments.
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