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Article: Pain Management; Overview.
- Article from:
- NWHRC Health Center - Pain Management
- Article date:
- June 15, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 National Women's Health Resource Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Pain is one of the most common human experiences. Yet pain has never been fully accepted as a medical problem. One reason may be because pain is a subjective and highly individualized experience. You can measure pain even though you can't touch it, feel it (unless it's your own), image it or prove its existence. Even a pinprick creates differing sensations of pain for different people.
Nevertheless, pain is the reason for at least 70 million visits to health care professionals' offices every year.
Pain is the body's way of sending a warning to the brain that something is wrong. Aches are felt when pain messages, carried by chemicals called ...