Elements of chronic pain are often overlooked

I think everyone who sees patients, and treats a lot of them with a particular condition, comes to see that condition as a microcosm of all of medicine. And that’s the way with me and pain. For some reason—perhaps it’s because I tend to see these patients more frequently than others—I think I have more of them.

Pain, and I mean here chronic pain, has certain characteristics which are shared with many other chronic diseases. Such elements of illness are often overlooked, and focusing on the forms they take in pain might be useful in conceptualizing them.

Check out a post of mine at the ACP Internist Blog.