Pain that outlasts the injury that caused it stops being a warning signal and becomes a problem in its own right. That is the definition, and it is also the reason chronic pain resists the approach that works for a sprained ankle. At Remix Medical in Houston, our board-certified pain physicians build treatment around that distinction.
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is pain that persists or recurs for longer than three months, often continuing after the original injury or illness has healed. It is now formally recognized as a condition in its own right rather than merely a symptom of something else.
That reclassification matters clinically. Acute pain is a protective alarm — it tells you to stop, and it resolves when the tissue does. In chronic pain the alarm keeps sounding after the danger has passed, because the nervous system itself has changed how it processes those signals.
What Drives Chronic Pain
1. Prior Injury or Surgery
Fractures, sprains, and operations can leave pain behind after the tissue heals, through nerve injury or persistent inflammation.
2. Arthritis and Degenerative Joint Disease
Osteoarthritis and inflammatory arthritis produce ongoing joint pain and stiffness.
3. Nerve Damage
Diabetes, infection, chemotherapy, or trauma can injure peripheral nerves, producing burning, shooting, or electric pain.
4. Spine Disorders
Herniated disc, spinal stenosis, and degenerative disc disease are among the most common sources of persistent pain.
5. Systemic Conditions
Fibromyalgia, lupus, and multiple sclerosis produce widespread pain through different mechanisms.
6. Chronic Headache and Migraine
Frequent headache is itself a chronic pain disorder, and one that responds to specific treatment.
Sleep disruption, low mood, stress, and deconditioning are not merely consequences of chronic pain. They feed back into it, which is why treating them is part of treating the pain.
How Remix Medical Can Help
Evaluation starts with identifying what is actually generating the pain — and whether there is more than one source, which there often is. That means a detailed pain history, physical examination, and review of prior imaging and treatment.
The evidence consistently favors a multimodal approach over escalating any single treatment. Procedures earn their place by restoring enough function for rehabilitation to work, not by substituting for it.
| Approach | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Physical rehabilitation | Graded exercise and reconditioning, tailored to what you can currently tolerate — foundational to lasting improvement |
| Medication management | Matched to the pain mechanism, with non-opioid options first-line; opioids are reserved for carefully selected situations given limited long-term benefit and real risk |
| Interventional procedures | Targeted injections, nerve blocks, and radiofrequency ablation when a specific pain source can be identified |
| Neuromodulation | Spinal cord stimulation evaluation for complex, persistent pain that has not responded to other measures |
| Behavioral pain management | Cognitive behavioral and acceptance-based approaches, which improve pain, function, and quality of life on their own evidence |
| Coordinated specialty care | One record shared across pain management, internal medicine, nephrology, and our other services |