Pain management
A multi-faceted approach to chronic pain
Chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than three months or keeps coming back. In some people it is linked to an ongoing disease or tissue problem, while in others it can continue even after the original damage has healed. In long-lasting pain, many biological, psychological and social factors can play a role together.
For this reason, the approach to chronic pain does not consist of a single method applied only to the painful area. Depending on the person's situation, the programme may combine graded exercise, adjusting daily activities and loading, pain education, manual or other supportive treatments where needed, and a medical assessment.
In the assessment, what the pain limits in the person's life matters as much as how severe it is: for example sleep, work, walking, climbing stairs, sport or social life. Goals are set around these functions in concrete, trackable terms.
Progress in chronic pain does not always follow a straight line. Symptoms may flare up and settle from time to time; rather than the programme being abandoned because of these fluctuations, its dose is adjusted when needed.
In some people, sleep, physical activity level, stress, workload and behaviours developed in response to pain can affect the experience of pain and daily function. For this reason, treatment does not focus only on a single tissue or imaging finding.
Who provides it
Cem Yazgan, Yıldız Cöcen Y., Görkem Paşa