Somatization occurs when you feel something physical as a result of an emotional or stressful feeling, but some doctors feel that the term is being used too much and not appropriately. In fact, many doctors believe that the term does not belong in medical terminology.

That's a good and very valid question. Pain is a difficult thing to measure. There's no lab test that can put it into an absolute number like a white blood cell count. Yet with 50 million chronic pain sufferers in the United States alone, there's got to be a better way to measure pain than the visual analog scale (VAS). Using this scale, patients assign a number from zero to 10 to rate their pain (zero is no pain, 10 is the worst pain).

Pain is a very difficult thing to measure. There's no lab test that can put it into an absolute number like a white blood cell count. Yet with 50 million chronic pain sufferers in the United States alone, there's got to be a better way to measure pain than the visual analog scale (VAS). Using this scale, patients assign a number from zero to 10 to rate their pain (zero is no pain, 10 is the worst pain).

Very simply, nonneuropathic pain is pain that is NOT coming from damaged or irritated nerves. Neuropathic pain -- neuro for nerve and pathic suggest something IS pathologic or wrong with the nerve.

The McGill Pain Questionnaire, also known as McGill pain index, is a scale of rating pain developed at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It was shown to be a valid and reliable tool to investigate pain and has been in use since 1971. There are many subsections to the questionnaire to help the examiner or health care professional get to the bottom of what hurts, how much it hurts, and potentially, why it hurts.

Good news for pain sufferers! Health care professionals have an improved tool to use when assessing your pain and helping you to find ways to manage your pain. A very well-known pain researcher from McGill University in Canada, Dr. Ronald Melzack continues to improve his famous McGill Pain Questionnaire.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS), also called neurostimulation are used to help relieve chronic neuropathic (nerve) pain. A stimulator is implanted into the patient's body, which then sends out impulses to interrupt the pain signals and prevent them from reaching the brain.

Every illness, disease, or medical condition has what we call a natural history. The natural history describes what typically happens for that patient with a particular problem. Natural history may include how quickly the disease advances or progresses. It also includes what signs and symptoms develop at each stage. Prognosis and what to expect at different time points of disease are also part of the natural history.

Complex regional pain syndrome or CRPS is a painful condition that affects the arm and hand or leg and foot. It usually occurs after trauma of some sort, including car accidents, falls, assault, lifting heavy objects, and surgery.

Every illness, disease, or medical condition has what we call a natural history. The natural history describes what typically happens for that patient with a particular problem. Natural history may include how quickly the disease advances or progresses. It also includes what signs and symptoms develop at each stage. Prognosis and what to expect at different time points of disease are also part of the natural history.