Adult Chronic Pain: Recent Findings on Causes and Contributing Factors

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According to the definition of pain provided by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), which is widely recognized by healthcare professionals and pain researchers and endorsed by the World Health Organization, pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage (1).It is a subjective experience influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors to varying extents.Pain can be evaluated and classified based on several criteria, including (A) duration (acute and chronic); (B) severity or Intensity (mild, moderate, and severe); and (C) type (nociceptive and neuropathic) (1).Chronic pain is defined as pain that persists for more than three months after an injury or occurs daily for a month, exceeding the healing time for the underlying injury (2).The reduction in pain threshold, increased sensitivity, and heightened responsiveness to pain can lead to both peripheral and central sensitization, which in turn may result in chronic pain (3).Chronic pain affects both physical and psychological health, disrupting every aspect of an individual's life, including home, work, leisure activities, and social interactions.It also influences health resource utilization and incurs direct and indirect costs for both individuals and society (4, 5).