How to define pain and back pain?
What is pain? How would you define pain? Is pain only related to the kind of sensation we get when we bash our finger with a hammer? Can emotions be painful?
In 1979 a group called the International Society for the Study of Pain tried to come up with a definition.
They said
"pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated
with actual or potential tissue damage or described by the patient in
terms of such damage"
Wow - who said a camel was a horse designed by a committee!
But, funnily enough, despite the definition being a bit wordy and long-winded, it does catch the essence of the problem of defining pain. Lets look at this definition of pain a bit more closely.
The first section of the pain definition says ... a sensory and emotional experience . The word and in there is very important. It's often the way we react to pain with our emotions which decides how badly we suffer. If we are stressed or over tired then pain always seems more severe. This is one reason why things like relaxation or hypnosis work so well in relieving pain. The pain of childbirth is a good example of this. Many women find learning a few simple relaxation or breathing techniques a big help. The same process happens in reverse in sportsmen who are injured in the heat of the match and don't notice it has happened until it is all over.
It is not only the irritation caused to our finger by being hit by the hammer which decides how much pain we feel. The mood we are in when it happens also counts for a lot.
The next bit of the pain definition seems strange. What can they mean
... actual or potential tissue damage ...? (Tissue by the way
is just a medical word to describe any bit of the body.)
Actual damage would be painful - we can all understand that much. But
potential damage?
In other words we can feel pain just because we think something
unpleasant may happen to us - even if it doesn't actually happen. Is
this true? Well, yes, probably.
Have you ever been to the dentist and found yourself wincing even before he did anything? Does a child cry because it fears its parent may smack or scold it - even if the punishment never actually comes. These are two simple examples of a more complex thought process which can go on inside all of our brains. So yes, just the thought of something awful happening can be sore or painful - even if it doesn't actually happen.
The last bit of the definition can also seem odd at first - "or
described by the patient in terms of such damage."
What is implied here is that it doesn't really matter if a bit of the
body is actually damaged or not. If the person describes what they feel
inside them as if damage has occurred then, for them, they have pain.
So, what at first seemed like an unwieldy bit of jargon is actually quite a good description of the real world for people in pain.
I'll go on in the next few pages of this website to describe more about pain and how it affects our wellbeing. The focus is on lower back pain but many of the things discussed might apply to pain from anywhere else in your body. Please read on or search the site for more specific information using the site search facility - click on the button marked "Explore this Site" at the top of the page.