There are some different definitions between acute and chronic pain but the biggest difference is that if a pain lasts long or not.
The definition of these pain is that acute pain lasts less than 1 month, chronic pain is the pain has been present more than three months and sub-acute pain is 1-3 months. However, some say acute pain is the pain has been present more than 3 months and chronic pain lasts more than 6 months.
Acute pain
Acute pain is a sudden onset, short duration and occurs with something specific onset.
Acute pain is caused by
- Sports injury
- Broken bone
- Burns and cut
- Labour and childbirth
- Surgery
Chronic pain
Chronic pain usually lasts and persists longer though the injury or illness is restored.
The examples of chronic pain are
- Headache
- Arthritis
- Cancer
- Nerve pain
- Back pain
- Fibromyalgia pain
People with chronic pain tend to feel dull and achy pain, restricted ROM, fatigue, appetite and emotional change such as depression, anger, fear of re-injury that makes people difficult to get back to what they used to do.
PAIN is such a subjective topic and different people have different sensitivity to pain. People also describe same pain as different pain. Practitioners have to question a lot to understand what kind of pain patients are feeling. The more you ask, the more we get information and comprehend.
