Chronic Pain and Emotional Health

By Anne Asher, About.com Guide

Updated January 23, 2006

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First, let’s distinguish between nervous system functioning in acute and chronic pain situations. For an overall image of the relationship of these 2 types of pain, you can think of acute pain as fast and chronic pain as slow. The speed of the pain is based on the speed of transmission of the communication signals from the origination site to the brain. Acute pain signals are communicated to the brain along different nerves than are chronic pain signals. Acute pain is like traveling in a souped up racecar, while chronic pain is a ride in the old clunker. Both types of nerve fibers travel on the spinothalamic tract, the main freeway for nerve fibers that communicate pain to the brain.

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• The Chronic Pain and Emotional Health Territory
• Nervous System Processing of Chronic Pain is Different than for Acute Pain
• Fast pain or Acute Pain Happens In Response to an Event.
• Slow Pain, or Chronic Pain Travels on Unmeylinated Nerve Fibers
• Emotional Deliverance and the Limbic System
• Bibliography - Chonic Pain and Emotional Health

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