The inital injury should be identified. Just because RSD is found, the search is not over because if the inital injury is not also treated, the RSD may never settle down. Even if treatment settles down the RSD, it may be reactivated by an untreated injury. Physicians, family, friends and etc need to remember that everyone with RSD has been through hell with the pain. Chronic pain is one of the most pressing health issues in the U.S. and other industrial nations because of the magnitude of the problem.
Acute pain is the direct result of an injury or disease.
It can be seen as a symptom of the disease. Chronic pain becomes a disease process of its own even though it may originally have been caused by an injury or disease. Many physicians define chronic pain as a pain that is present for over six months or reoccurs periodically for over six months but the International Association For The Study Of Pain feels that this is not a correct definition. They see chronic pain as any pain that lasts for over a month past the normal healing time for an injury or disease. But if after 6 weeks there is still pain, RSD may be developing.