What is Chronic Pain Syndrome ?
Chronic pain syndrome is a common problem affecting almost 40-50% of the total world population. Pain is the sensation that is triggered by the central nervous system as an alarm of a possible injury. However, in the case of chronic pain, these signals are kept firing by the nervous system, which can be continued for weeks, months and years. This type of pain is called neuropathic pain due to the pathological changes in neurons of the peripheral and central nervous system.
There need not be any past injury or evidence of any body damage for the initialization of chronic pain syndrome. Chronic pain can be defined as pain that has lasted for more than 12 weeks and has not responded to any treatment. Thus chronic pain is considered to be more challenging than other disabilities as there is no objective evidence or findings supporting chronic pain and there are no medical tests available so far which can measure its levels.
How prevalent is Chronic Pain Syndrome?
Chronic pain can be accounted for as the most universal form of human stress. Chronic pain syndrome is very common. Its prevention, assessment and treatment are the principal challenges for healthcare providers. The prevalence rate of chronic pain syndrome may vary, but it is so far clear that more than 50% people in the US are suffering from one or the other types of persistent pain. In a more detailed study, more than 45% of the people are suffering from musculoskeletal pain such as back pain, neck pain, knee pain, etc. Most recent data have confirmed that more than 13% of people worldwide are suffering from the pain daily.
Factors responsible for Chronic Pain Syndrome
Chronic pain is pain that last for more than the normal healing period i.e. 12 weeks. In general, it is very difficult to evaluate the severity of pain because the majority of pain is classified as imaginary and only the patient can experience it. Furthermore, it has been observed to disturb sleep and hence degrades one’s health and functional capacity.
Some of the factors, which can be responsible for pain are injury, disease, viral or bacterial infection, accidents, and surgery.
Symptoms Associated with the Chronic Pain Syndrome
The symptoms of the chronic pain may include:
- Mild to severe disturbing sensation such as shooting, burning, aching.
- Feeling of discomfort, soreness, tightness or stiffness.
Apart from the sensation, other problems that are as well associated with pain can include:
- Fatigue
- Sleeplessness
- Withdrawal from activity and increased desire to sleep
- Sensitivity to infection due to weak immunity
- Frequent mood swings
- Functional disability
Some of the other obvious causes, which are directly proportional to the severity and duration of pain, are as follows:
- Alcoholism
- Limb or leg amputation
- Diabetes
- Facial nerve problems
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Spine Surgery
What goes wrong in the Chronic Pain Syndrome?
Chronic pain is a challenging condition wherein the pain remains active in the nervous system beyond the period of healing. Chronic pain need not always be an after effect of any injury or infection. This can take a toll on person’s physical, emotional and financial well-being.
For instance, the most common chronic pain may originate from headaches, joint pains, back ache, etc. Other kinds of chronic pain may originate from sports injuries or generalized muscle or nerve pain can also be lead into chronic conditions.
It has been observed that the above mentioned pathological changes can damage or weaken neurons in the central nervous system. Due to this damage, the normal pain signaling process can be disturbed to a great level. This in turn can cause hyper sensitization or spontaneous neuronal activity of the nervous system and hence nerves within that system cannot work to transmit sensations to the brain. This leads to the sense of numbness leading to an individual experiencing pain in the affected region.
How Stem Cells treatment can help
After years of research, it has been determined that it is better to alter the microenvironment through the application of stem cells instead of suppressing the immune system. Mesenchymal stem cells are known to have angiogenic trans differentiation and homing properties, which are useful for forming new blood vessels, differentiating into required targeted cells and the creation of a microenvironment for the faster secretion of immune cells.
These unique properties of stem cells may be exploited to differentiate them into neuronal origin to compromise with the nerve damage in a chronic neuropathic pain.
Treatment of Chronic Pain Syndrome at our Partner Clinics
Local Administration -Through this mode, cells are infused directly at the targeted site of injury.
Intravenous Administration – Through this mode, cells are infused through the veins along with the mannitol to expand blood volumes in the central nervous system, to ensure that the maximum number of cells are reaching to the targeted area.
Once infused back in the body, these cells may be repopulated at the damaged parts of the organ, through their strong paracrine effects and differentiate into lost or damaged cells to restore back the function. These stem cells are known to create a suitable microenvironment to accelerate the secretion of growth factors, promote the differentiation of targeted cells in case of chronic pain syndrome, brain cells of central nervous system are generally targeted. This will help to restore back the lost function.
Thus with our standardized, broad-based and holistic approach, it is now possible to obtain noticeable improvements in patients with the chronic pain syndrome, in the symptoms as well as their functional abilities.
