My Personal Injury Solicitor says I need to see a pain management expert, why is this?
Chronic pain affects many of us living in the UK. The British Medical Journal estimates that chronic pain affects between one-third and one-half of the population of the UK.
Broadly speaking, chronic pain is pain that has been continuous for 3 months or more. It can be very debilitating for sufferers. The causes of the pain are not always clear, and that can make diagnosing it tricky. I have come across clients who continue to suffer pain after an accident when, according to the orthopaedic experts, there is no reason why they should still be in pain. In those circumstances, we will often instruct a pain management expert, to give a further opinion.
The brain and the nerves inside the spine (the spinal nerves) make up the central nervous system. The spinal nerves carry messages from the body to the brain to tell it what is happening around the body.
The brain acts like a control centre working out from these messages if it needs to do anything. A simple analogy is to think of how the messages and the brain combine to form an alarm system. It is the brain’s interpretation of this information from the alarm system that results in the feeling of pain. Sometimes the brain’s interpretation of these signals is not accurate, so a suffer feels real pain, but there is no explanation as to why the pain is there.
We usually expect pain to settle down with time but sometimes the brain continues to send out pain signals. These signals can be hard to stop, are often intense and at times seem to come for no obvious reason. This fact is not always easy to understand but it important to understand that this pain is still “real”.
I am currently acting for a client who was involved in a serious road traffic accident. Her injuries were expected to have settled down within 18 months, but she is still in significant pain over 3 years later. The pain is so bad, she has had to significantly cut down her hours of work and her life is now very different to how it was. She no longer can enjoy the sports and activities she took for granted before the accident, and struggles with every day tasks she used to perform with ease. We have instructed a pain management expert who has recommended a 12-week rehabilitation course, with a variety of therapies included, that will take place at a private clinic. She will stay over for the 12-week period, so she can take maximum advantage of the treatments. It is hoped this will help her get over the pain, or at least be able to manage it so that she can get back to something resembling her life as it was before the road traffic accident. The 12-week rehabilitation course is incredibly expensive, and we are currently having an argument with the insurers who are reluctant to pay for it.
Chronic pain issues can also be controversial in injury compensation claims and sadly, insurers often dispute the chronic pain. A further complication is that chronic pain conditions can be difficult to diagnose and to categorise and this is the case particularly with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This condition usually results in the sufferer experiencing extreme and debilitating pain. It most commonly occurs after an initial injury and is generally confined to the injured area of the body, but it can spread. CRPS is still poorly understood which makes it difficult to diagnose and treat. Symptoms of CRPS can include changes to the skin in the affected area, for example colour change and mottling, and abnormal hair and nail growth. The pain experienced is often described as a burning or stabbing pain and altered sensation is usually experienced in the affected area. Flare ups of pain can last for hours or days at a time. In addition, whilst some sufferers will find that their symptoms gradually resolve, others find that CRPS is experienced for many years with no end in sight.
Long term pain can also lead to depression and other psychiatric illness and therefore there is often a link between pain management expert evidence and psychiatric expert evidence.
It is important that injured people work with their Solicitors and pain management experts to try to diagnose and prove the chronic pain. This can be very difficult for people, understandably, who face daily battles because of their pain, and often have little energy left for complex legal battles.
At Taylor&Emmet we will guide you through the process with compassion and empathy. We will see the person behind the injury and always do our very best to maximise compensation and get you the therapies they need. If you would like further information, please don’t hesitate to get in contact us by calling 0114 218 4000 or emailing info@tayloremmet.co.uk.
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