Managing Chronic Pain with the Biopsychosocial Model – CAPC – Blog [Video]

Pain is more than a physical sensation. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.” This definition highlights two important points: first, pain is sensory and emotional; second, pain can be experienced in the absence of an identifiable pathology.

Chronic pain is defined as pain that persists for greater than three months and often after healing has taken place or in the absence of any initial identifiable pathology. But who teaches us about chronic pain? I’d argue no one. We essentially just carry over what we know about acute pain and think that will do. However, defaulting to our acute pain instincts with chronic pain can make things worse.

When we talk about the management of chronic pain we need to view it not as simply a symptom, but a disease unto itself. And …