### symptom | pain:

Chronic pain
* IS a small things next to the terrible tragedies taking place.
* affects the marital relationship
  - whole family
* associated with conditions such as arthritis or back problems can interfere with sleep.
* can also cause stress , sleep disorders , and depression
  - alter a human being's whole life
* can be a secondary cause of low sexual desire
  - episodic with periodic recurrence
  - just as unpleasant as acute pain, but lasts much longer
  - mild or severe
  - progressive
  - the result of damaged tissue, but very often is attributable to nerve damage
* can cause functional loss and social withdrawal
  - many good people to despair
  - destroy a persons entire life
  - devastate a person's life
  - develop
  - have mixed or unknown mechanisms or it can be psychological in nature
  - last for years and be extremely detrimental to one's health
  - lead to depression
  - occur long after nerve and tissue damage has apparently healed
* can occur without a known cause
  - any apparent injury or trauma at all
  - persist long after the acute pain of an injury has subsided
  - seriously affect the quality of life for patients and their families
  - systematically erode the quality of life
  - wreak havoc on families
* causes depression
  - much unnecessary suffering and overwhelming disability
* common and often underestimated, but very expensive condition.
* complex, multidimensional health problem.
* creates both physical and emotional suffering
  - many different types of suffering
* debilitating and demoralizing condition.
* disease process that develops with inadequate management of the acute injury.
* extends over a longer period of time.
* following pancreatitis is fairly common.
* goes on and on sometimes for months or even years.
* has a major impact on the emotional and physical health of an individual
  - no adaptive biologic role
* involves all aspects of a person's life.
* is an epidemic in the United States.
* is any frequent or continuous pain that has lasted for more than a few months
  - painful condition lasting for more than six months
* is as differing and variable as the number of people experiencing it
  - much an economic, psychological and sociological problem as it is physical
* is associated with deficits in information processing
  - rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
  - believed to occur when neurons in the spinal cord send faulty signals
  - by definition, pain which persists beyond the usual healing time
  - chronic conditions
  - common after several episodes
  - considered to be our nation's third largest health problem
  - different to acute pain
  - difficult to define or describe
  - increasingly common in health care
  - known either to make discharge difficult or to cause frequent discharges
* is often devastating to older adults' overall health and quality of life
  - less intense than acute pain
  - one of the harder things to treat or to have
* is one of the most fearsome problems in medical practice
  - frequent causes of suffering and disability in the Western world
  - pain that frequently recurs or is of long duration
* is pain that has lasted a long time
  - for a long time
  - lasts for at least several months
  - probably the number one health problem in America
* is the hardest to treat
  - most devastating physical malady that exists
  - type of pain that persists long after the original injury
  - usually the effect of a physical injury
  - very different to acute pain
* lasts anywhere from a few months to years
  - beyond the typical healing time
* lasts longer than acute pain and is generally somewhat resistant to medical treatment
  - the normal healing time
* leads to chronic suffering
  - disuse and weakness of the quadriceps, exacerbating damage to the knee joint
* major public health problem.
* makes it more difficult to obtain truly restful sleep
  - some women afraid to have sex
* occurs when the injury, surgery or treatment is healed but the pain continues.
* personal and private suffering.
* refers to pain of long duration, typically three months or greater.
* serious health problem confronting many today.
* serves no useful function to the body.
* signal that the body is out of sync and desperately needs help.
* syndromes, such as fibromyalgia, can also cause chest pain.
* tricky area of medicine.
* unique disorder that affects whole lives rather than just joints and muscles.