
Scrambler Therapy: Effective use of artificial neurons for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain – Spring 2014
The experience of pain is a normal sensation existing as an expedient mechanism for preservation of life, reduction of injury and/or the initiation of healing. It is formally defined in many research studies as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with real or potential tissue damage (Merskey & Bogduk, 1994). When pain persists beyond the reasonable timeframe of healing (e.g., six months) and seems to have separated from its purpose of warning, it is labeled as chronic.
Chronic pain, for the most part, does not seem to have a specific purpose. While acute pain is usually time-limited, chronic pain can persist for decades. Chronic pain persists beyond a point when natural healing and in some cases surgical healing has resolved. Subjective components seem to increase in importance and the behaviors or responses of the individual appear disproportionate to underlying
pathophysiology and often become the disorder itself.
Chronic pain disrupts every aspect of life and over time produces significant emotional and behavioral changes. People experiencing chronic pain seem to report the pain as treatment-resistant, thereby increasing exposure to more and more treatment approaches, including the use of opioids in combination with various cocktails of anticonvulsants, anti-inflammatories and antidepressants. As pain persists in the presence of varying and increasing interventions, the focus of treatment begins to move toward the psychological. Referrals are often made for “behavioral pain management,” usually focused on improvement in coping as well as improvement of specific psychophysiological manifestations of the pain (e.g., muscle tension).