Chronic Pain Affects Psychological Well-Being

Chronic Pain Affects Psychology Prof. Dr. Haci Ahmet Alıcı, noting that pain becomes chronic when it lasts longer than 3 months as a warning signal of the body, made the following remarks on the subject: "In chronic pain, there is not just pain. There is now a patient who has lost hope for recovery, feels helpless and anxious, whose patience and resilience have been exhausted, who has developed unique experiences about pain—in short, a patient affected emotionally, psychologically, physically and spiritually." Prof. Dr. Haci Ahmet Alıcı from the Algology Outpatient Clinic at Medipol Mega University Hospital made important clarifications regarding the treatment of chronic pain. Noting that pain is a warning sign, Prof. Dr. Alıcı stated: "Whether it is a headache, abdominal pain, or pain from elsewhere in our body, we all experience pain at some point in our lives. Experiencing pain is in human nature. Pain is actually a warning sign. It is a signal showing that something is going wrong in our body. In other words, pain is our friend. It directs us to seek help from a doctor. We define pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience related to actual or potential tissue damage that encompasses all of a person's past experiences. Most of our pain is temporary. When we solve the disease causing the pain, the pain passes on its own or when we use painkillers or through various behaviors, and it does not return. We call this type of pain acute pain. If the same pain does not pass but continues, or if it recurs and its duration exceeds a period of about 3 months, we speak of pain becoming chronic."

Chronic Pain Has Multiple Dimensions

Pointing out that chronic pain is defined as pain lasting longer than 3-6 months requiring long-term treatment, with a multidimensional experience unique to the individual, containing sensory, emotional, behavioral and cognitive components, Prof. Dr. Alıcı stated: "In the chronification process that continues after pain begins, pain's protective warning limiting effect has limits. During the chronification process, the person seeks solutions for pain treatment with great hope. The individual makes efforts. In these efforts and the search for solutions, there is hope that the pain will pass. Where hope and individual efforts are exhausted, pain has begun to become chronic. In the acute pain period, the psychology of the individual, which enables us to respond quickly to threat in the form of anxiety, turns to depression, which is the psychological component of chronic pain, as a result of pain continuing. Now chronic pain disease/syndrome has emerged—the point where pain requires multidimensional, multidisciplinary examination and treatment, where pain itself is accepted as a disease. Therefore, chronic pain no longer appears to us as a symptom. It is now a multidimensional syndrome. In chronic pain, there is not just pain. There is now a patient who, having lived with pain for a long time and lost hope for recovery, feels helpless and anxious, whose patience and resilience have been exhausted, who has developed unique experiences about pain—in short, a patient affected emotionally, psychologically, physically and spiritually. For this reason, for pain treatment to be effective and successful, it must be conducted in the form of a more complex program."