There is no scientific way to measure it. It mysteriously continues after the injury has healed or the disease is over, and because doctors didn't know what to do about it. Today, there is some good news. As of Jan. 1 of this year, medical facilities risk losing their accreditation if their doctors and nurses don't assess a patient's pain regularly, just the way they record other vital signs, and then control that pain to the best of their ability. But not only will these standards help patients be more comfortable, pain researchers know that patients recover much faster if they are in little or no pain.
Nerves can become damaged, causing the spinal cord to literally rewire itself.
It then sends false signals to the brain that there is pain, even after there shouldn't be. That is why stopping the pain before that process can begin is so crucial. Chronic pain is the hardest to treat. But at places like the University of California-San Francisco Pain Management Center, pain specialists go a long way to making it bearable. Doctors like Pamela Palmer use an arsenal of weapons to fight intractable pain.