Phoenix Psychology

Acute and chronic pain, head injury, physical injury

Chronic pain is defined as pain that has lasted for longer than three months and persists after the point when natural healing has taken place. Unlike acute pain (experienced in the immediate and short-term period after an injury, trauma, or surgery) chronic pain cannot be effectively dealt with by standard biomedical interventions alone. Chronic pain is a complex problem and focussing only on the physical aspects of pain without due consideration to psychological or social components, often overlooks key factors in a patient’s experience of ongoing pain. The biopsychosocial model adopts a more holistic approach to the problem of pain. Rather than focussing primarily on physical signs and symptoms, it takes into consideration physical, psychological and social components of the individual’s problems, acknowledging the multifactorial causes and effects of chronic pain. It is considered to be the model for best practice clinically and research has shown that treatments based on a biopsychosocial model are effective in managing chronic pain problems.