“For all the happiness, Mankind can gain.

Its not in pleasure, But in relief from pain.”

John Dryden

Pain Relief is one of the major objective of Physiotherapy. And, it is a great objective as most of the population who seeks medical advice, do so after having pain of some kind or other.Physiotherapy is not an exception either.

PAIN

The word ‘pain‘ is derived from the latin poena, meaning punishment. The International Association for the study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”

This definition clearly shows that pain has an emotional aspect associated with it. The defition also focusses on the protective role of pain as it may occur even in the presence of potential tissue damage, thus, act as a signal that the part of the body or whole body is in some form of distress.

Etiological Classification of Pain

There are two categories broadly in which pain can occur:

Traumatological

Pathological

TRAUMATOLOGICAL

This pain is the result of some kind of trauma. This may include:

Trauma due to external injury e.g. pain due to fracture or pain after a soft tissue injury

Micro – Trauma or Repetetive Stress/ Strain Injury e.g. lateral epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow), osteoarthritis knee joint.

PATHOLOGICAL

The pain is due to some kind of underlying disease process.

Pathological process can further divided into:

Inflammatory (rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis) or non- inflammatory(cancerous growth, hysterical pain)

Infectious (pain in chikungunya, pain in tuberculosis) or non- infectious (Cervical or lumbar radiculopathy due to PIVD)

Local (cystic ganglion, complex regional pain syndrome) or Systemic (gouty arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis)

congenital (chest pain due to heart anomalies) or acquired.

Check more details at https://www.locomotionclinic.com