Pain

Pain seemingly needs little explanation. It is safe to say that everyone has experienced some kind of physical pain in his or her lifetime. For most people, it is a normal, if unpleasant, sensation triggered by the nervous system to alert them to an injury or the need to seek medical treatment. With medical care and the body's amazing power to heal itself, such pain normally stops, tapers off, or disappears, leaving little more than a vivid memory. Doctors call this acute pain.

Chronic pain is something quite different. It persists sometimes for weeks, months, or years.

It is easy to see how such pain can overwhelm even the sturdiest, most resolute people. Without relief, and eventually without even the hope of relief, they can lose the ability and desire to eat, sleep, work, or function in any way normally. Pain becomes the defining factor in their lives, leading to an endless cycle of sleeplessness, irritability, and depression.

For many middle-aged and elderly persons, arthritis, cancer, angina, or the stabbing facial pain of trigeminal neuralgia (tic douloureux) are ever present, debilitating companions.