Chronic pain causes
Chronic pain causes
There are many causes of chronic pain, including illness and injury. Even in cases of previous illness or injury, pain can persist long after this has been resolved. Conversely, many people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of illness.5
Chronic pain may be referred to by its features or the regions it affects (e.g., a patient may say they have back pain, or they may refer to neuropathic pain as a shooting or burning pain).
The International Classification of Diseases defines and outlines the causes of chronic pain as:
- Chronic primary pain
- Chronic cancer pain
- Chronic post-surgical and post-traumatic pain
- Chronic neuropathic pain
- Chronic headache and orofacial pain
- Chronic visceral pain
- Chronic musculoskeletal pain.6
Pharmacy professionals are well placed to enhance care for people living with pain by highlighting where treatment strategies could be improved, identifying and supporting people taking high-dose opioids, carrying out structured medication reviews and signposting as appropriate.
Risk factors
| Figure 1: Risk factors associated with the development of chronic pain | |
| Demographics |
Older age Female sex Ethnic minority cultural background Low socio-economic background Unemployment and occupational risk factors, such as manual labour |
| Lifestyle factors |
Smoking Alcohol intake Physical inactivity Malnutrition Lack of sunshine and vitamin D insufficiency |
| Clinical |
Multimorbidity and mortality Physical and mental disability Mental health conditions Surgical and medical interventions Obesity Sleep disorders Genetic predisposition |
| Other risk factors |
Attitudes and beliefs about pain that are dismissive History of violent injury, abuse or interpersonal violence |
Sources: Milles SEE, Nicolson KP, Smith BH, 2019,7, van Hecke O, Torrance N, Smith BH, 2013.8
References
1. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010364
2. bbc.com/news/health-61309962
3. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34326292/
4. nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193
5. hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/chronic-pain
6. journals.lww.com/pain/Abstract/2019/01000/ Chronic_pain_as_a_symptom_or_a_disease__the_IASP.3.aspx
7. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6676152/
8. bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007-0912(17)32961-6/fulltext#seccestitle40