Chronic Pain Management

What is chronic pain?

Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. Acute pain is a type of pain that typically lasts under six months, or pain that is directly related to easily identifiable soft-tissue damage, such as a sprained ankle. Acute pain gradually resolves as the injured tissues heal.

Chronic pain is a disease of the nervous system and is often defined as any pain lasting more than three months or pain that persists beyond normal tissue healing time. Chronic pain can be constant or intermittent. Because chronic pain can be experienced by those who do not have easily identifiable evidence of tissue damage, or other biological reason for pain, diagnosis can be very difficult.

Do I have chronic pain?

The symptoms of chronic pain include:

• Pain that does not go away as expected after an illness or injury
• Pain that may be described as shooting, burning, aching, or electrical
• Discomfort, soreness, tightness, or stiffness
• Stress, anxiety or depression

Do I just have to grin and bear it?

No you don’t! Expert physiotherapy, such as we offer here at Physiotherapy Works, along with prescribed medication, can make a real difference to your life with chronic pain. We advocate a multidisciplinary pain management approach, cooperating with your other medical practitioners to help you better manage your pain.

Physiotherapy Works’ specialists will teach you how to re-educate your muscles’ patterns, which have become disrupted from the pain. Our main goal is to reduce your pain and increase your overall ability to exercise and get on with every-day activities and work. We truly understand how debilitating and dispiriting chronic pain can be, and we want to help restore your joy in life.

I’m never really going to get better, am I?

It’s easy to understand why constant or recurring pain can make you feel this way, but evidence supports the use of active treatments such as therapeutic exercise. Real, discernible improvement is definitely possible. At Physiotherapy Works, our programmes for chronic pain are renowned for empowering patients to manage their own conditions. Working with your other health care providers, we increase your ability to perform graded exercises and normal every-day activities.

Knowledge is power

We’re also experienced in providing education about pain, and help you modify any unhelpful beliefs and responses you may have learned, such as catastrophizing and other responses which may encourage depression.