While everyone experiences pain from time to time, chronic pain affects only about ten percent of the population. While injuries normally heal after a specified length of time, chronic pain occurs when specific nerves continually tell the brain continues to they hurt, even if they technically don’t. Some areas of the body appear to be more prone to continuous pain than others. Here’s a look at the most common types of chronic pain.
Chronic Back Pain
Chronic back pain is a leading type of chronic pain -- and no wonder. According to Dr. Edward Paul of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, about 80% of adults experience back pain. However, “back” is a very large term to consider. For some people, it’s the entire back. Others might find pain more centered in the neck, mid-back, or lower back. Pinched nerves are responsible for a large part of this number. For example, sciatica is a pinched nerve in the lumbar region that can cause numbness down the buttocks and into the leg.
However, other issues -- ongoing or healed -- can also be responsible for chronic back pain. Traumatic fractures in the spinal cord can be difficult to repair. Bone spurs, herniated discs, slipped discs, compression fractures, strained ligaments, structural deformities, and personalized accidents and injuries can all contribute to chronic back pain.
Headaches
Headaches are also extremely common across the population. For some people, headaches can be so severe and so frequent, the chronic pain makes it virtually impossible to leave a dark, curtained room, much less go out into the sunshine.
Of the main types of headaches that can become a source of chronic pain, migraines are perhaps the most extreme. Migraine headaches are thought to be caused by certain things that trigger the nervous system to basically initiate a severe headache (for example, intensely bright lights are a trigger for some people, while others may have to avoid eating chocolate). Hormonal fluctuations, such as those that occur during puberty, may also have a lot to do with migraines.
Cluster headaches are also an extremely painful type of headache. They tend to follow a pattern, such as appearing in the middle of the night at a particular spot in the head. Because of this “schedule,” researchers suspect an abnormality in the hypothalamus may have something to do with this type of chronic pain. Other common types of chronic headaches include headaches caused by strain, when the ocular muscles become fatigued, and tension headaches, caused by chronic stress.
Arthritis
There are over 100 different types of arthritis, all characterized by chronic joint pain. As such, it is one of the leading causes of chronic pain as well. Inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, is the result of an immune system that has turned against the body, attacking the joints and causing severe discomfort and pain. Arthritis can also be caused by metabolic disorders (gout), and infections that get into the joints.
The most common type of arthritis, however, is osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis, also called degenerative arthritis, is caused by a degeneration in the joints. As the cartilage wears away, the bones begin to rub against each other. Some types of arthritides can begin mildly, slowly growing worse with time. Others go through periods of intense pain, before going into a sort of remission when the individual experiences much less pain than normal, and eventually returning again.
