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Classification
Of Pain

What Is Chronic Pain?

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The International Classification of Diseases (ICD- revision 11) published by the World Health Organization (WHO), define the chronic primary pain as pain in one or more anatomical regions that:1

  • persists or recurs for longer than 3 months​
  • is associated with significant emotional distress (eg. anxiety, anger, frustration, or depressed mood) and/or significant functional disability (interference in activities of daily life and participation in social roles)​
  • and the symptoms are not better accounted for by another diagnosis.

​Chronic primary pain can occur in any body system (eg. nervous, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal systems), and in any body site (face, low-back, neck, upper-limb, thorax, abdominal, pelvis, and urogenital region), or in a combination of body sites (eg. widespread pain). This is mirrored by the general structure of the classification. Subtypes of Chronic Primary Pain are listed in Figure 1.1

classification of chronic primary pain

Features Of Chronic Pain

  • Chronic pain exerts an enormous personal and economic burden, affecting more than 30% of people worldwide.2
  • Chronic pain is a leading source of human suffering and disability.3
  • Chronic pain is recognized as pain that extends beyond the period of healing, with levels of identified pathology that often are low and insufficient to explain the presence and/or extent of the pain. 4
  • Early intervention plays an important role in preventing pain chronification.5
pain 3
MC-I305-10-2024
Data preparation: January 2024

  1. Nicholas M et al. Pain (2019);160:28-37
  2. Cohen et al. Lancet 2021; 397: 2082–97
  3. Treede et al. Pain (2019); 19–27
  4. Pain: Current Understanding of Assessment, Management, and Treatments. Developed by NPC as part of a collaborative project with JCAHO (2001)
  5. Morlion B et al. Current Medical Research and Opinion (2018); 34(7):1169-78

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