China Pain Relief Week丨Pay attention to pain and say goodbye to pain together

Since the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) initiated the establishment of "World Pain Day" in October 2004, the anti-pain year theme released by IASP every October has become the most eye-catching event in the global pain medicine community.

IASP designates the third Monday of October each year as "Global Day Against Pain" and sets a theme as the focus of the annual "Global Year Against Pain". The Chinese Medical Association also designates the third week of October each year as "China Pain Week".

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, which can be divided into acute and chronic pain.

Chronic pain refers to pain that persists or recurs for more than three months and is now defined as an independent disease. The number of chronic pain patients in my country exceeds 300 million, and the patient population is growing rapidly and showing a trend of younger age.

Neuralgia is another type of pain that needs to be taken seriously. What is neuralgia? Let’s start with shingles.

Shingles is an acute viral infection disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which remains latent in the human body. When the body's immunity becomes low, the latent virus will be reactivated.

Postherpetic neuralgia refers to pain that lasts for 1 month or more after the shingles rash heals. It is the most common complication of shingles. If the pain lasts for more than 6 months, it is impossible to completely heal on its own. Long-term and recurring pain will have a great impact on the patient's psychology and may even cause some patients to have suicidal thoughts.

In fact, shingles is not scary, because the affected areas of skin herpes usually recover in about a week. Many people will become very nervous when they see a lot of herpes on the skin, but there is no need to be nervous. At this time, you just need to go to the hospital in time to avoid infection.

The real "destructive power" is the neuralgia caused by herpes zoster. It is more common in middle-aged and elderly people over 60 years old and people with low immunity. This pain is severe and can also cause numbness, pigmentation, pain sensitivity and other damage to the local skin. Even the slightest touch of clothing can induce severe pain. Therefore, post-herpetic neuralgia is also called "immortal cancer."

Shingles often occurs on the chest, back, front chest, between the ribs, head, face, limbs, etc., with obvious symptoms of sharp, itching, burning, throbbing and stinging pain. The painful area is often larger than the skin lesion area, making it unbearable.

In addition, if the eye area is affected, it may cause ptosis, cataracts, and even blindness. At the same time, chronic peripheral nerve damage can also lead to facial paralysis, hearing loss and other problems.

If you are suffering from neuralgia caused by shingles, please go to a pain specialist as soon as possible to avoid delaying treatment.

Hospitals usually use a variety of methods to relieve pain, including oral medication, nerve blocks, local injections, ozone therapy, transcutaneous electrical stimulation of acupoints, floating needles, acupuncture, fire needles, Chinese medicine treatment, and minimally invasive surgeries such as pulsed radiofrequency, radiofrequency ablation, spinal cord stimulation, morphine pumps, etc. In short, although herpes zoster is a relatively serious skin disease, as long as you seek medical treatment in time and take appropriate treatment measures, you can effectively relieve pain and cure the disease.

Pain problems need to be taken seriously. If you are suffering from pain, please find a suitable solution in time to avoid causing greater pain.

Author: Shen Hui, nurse at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Oriental Hospital

Scientific review: Zhang Jinhua, Director of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Oriental Hospital

Editor: Xie Yun and Wu Yuetong

Proofreader: Yan Shuo (internship)