Pain can come in many forms, all of which are generally unpleasant; some can be excruciating whilst others are just an inconvenience like a minor headache. Perhaps fortunately for us we cannot actually feel another's physical pain even if we can to a degree experience their emotional pain often caused by the physical. Pain relief is dealt with by the medical discipline of pain management and a field that is gaining lot of recognition.

Although pain management is concerned with all types of pain, it is less worried where the pain is under control with standard practices but more with areas where pain relief doe not work or rarely. Acute pain for instance; often the result of trauma, can be reversed and may only require measures for correcting the underlying problem. Chronic pain on the other hand is normally harder to diagnose and treat; it may be caused by cancer, nerve damage or pain that is not actually at the site of trauma.

Unfortunately where this type of situation occurs, it is easier to deal with the pain as a separate condition as there is no guarantee that treating what is believed to be the cause will work. Pain management has generally benefited from a multidisciplinary approach which can involve the use of analgesics and narcotics, including interventional procedures and physical therapy.

This method of pain relief also includes psychological techniques for biofeedback, cognitive therapy and the use of yoga and meditation for example. From time to time a situation occurs where a person may feel pain for an injury that has healed but the pain pathways that were set up are still sending signals; where this happens the pain is once again treated as a separate condition.

A number of medical disciplines have been brought together within the pain management field including physiatrists, anesthesiologists plus others that specialize in the field of pain. Part of this team is made up of professionals that specialize in managing pain by the use of pharmacological means. Still others use interventional methods in the pursuit of managing pain.

Where pain management departments have been set up they are watched by other health care workers interested in providing pain relief methods. Although the work of pain management can be useful in the pursuit of pain relief in any situation, their main focus is on conditions that are serious, terminal and long term, like cancer, serious illness and major accidents for example. Health care workers, nurses and other medical professionals will be providing training and education for their patients in pain relief using some of the methods being used now in pain management departments.