Pain Management

Pain management refers to the practice of applying psychological, behavioral, and physical strategies to improve quality of life with chronic pain. A condition requiring pain management will often have chronic pain as a major symptom or be a pain disorder in its own right. The term pain management reflects the increasing recognition that living with long-term pain has psychological, behavioral, and social consequences for the individual, such as increased distress, disability, and social isolation. Poor management of long-term pain is likely to increase the use of acute health care resources by patients. Importantly, there is evidence that psychological and behavioral factors can, in turn, influence pain processing itself; therefore, management of the physical, psychological, and behavioral aspects of long-term pain is important to maximize health ...