Chronic pain is a unique disorder that affects whole lives rather than just joints and muscles.
In fact, chronic pain is said to cost society more in terms of lost working days and worker s compensation than cancer or heart disease. In addition to social costs, there are psychological costs because people do not have control over their lives and suffer a diminished quality of life. Chronic pain syndromes can actually change the way the body s pain-sensing mechanism and its natural pain relieving systems operate, so the nervous system becomes more sensitive to pain and less receptive to the brain chemicals that moderate or turn off pain. This remodeling of the nervous system is one reason that prominent pain researchers now believe chronic pain should be considered as actual disease of the nervous system. Treating acute pain early and aggressively with an integrative approach can slow the progression of irreversible changes in the nervous system, and also limit the creation of long-lasting pain memories that can intensify future responses to painful stimuli.