<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/28/sufferers-of-chronic-pain-have-long-been-told-its-all-in-their-head-we-now-know-thats-wrong>
"To most people, pain is an unpleasant but short-lived sensation, occurring as
a result of illness or injury. Although some people may experience ongoing or
chronic pain, the assumption is there must be some kind of underlying physical
injury, such as a crushed nerve, or an angry, inflamed joint.
Increasingly though, experts are waking up to the idea that chronic pain can
occur without any obvious physical injury, or in a completely separate area of
the body from the original site of tissue damage. There’s also mounting
evidence that seemingly very different pain conditions – chronic headaches, low
back pain and jaw pain, say – may share common underlying mechanisms, and that
once a person develops one chronic pain condition, they’re predisposed to
develop others.
The Covid-19 pandemic could make this situation even worse. One of the most
common symptoms reported by people with “long Covid” is musculoskeletal pain,
and those with existing musculoskeletal pain conditions seem to be at risk of
experiencing stronger pain after a serious Covid infection.
“Musculoskeletal pain is an issue that we must start considering as a long
Covid problem,” says Prof Lars Arendt-Nielsen, immediate past president of the
International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and director of the
world’s largest translational pain research centre at Aalborg University in
Denmark.
The health profession as a whole does not treat people with chronic pain well.
And it is about to be hit by a tsunami of severely ill people needing help."
Via Muse, who wrote "Interesting article about chronic pain."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
