HealthInfo West Coast-Te Tai Poutini
Overview of chronic pain
Tirohanga whānui ki te mamae karioi
If pain lasts for more than 3 months, or longer than the expected healing time, it is called chronic or persistent pain. In medicine, the word chronic means long-lasting.
Chronic pain is common. At least 1 in 5 people in New Zealand experience it. For some people this means they experience pain all the time. For others, the pain may come and go.
You may get chronic pain without any known cause. Or you could get it following a medical condition or injury, even if the injury has healed. It is like a fire alarm continuing to go off after the fire has been put out.
Chronic pain can affect people of all ages including tamariki (children) and rangatahi (teenagers). See Chronic or persistent pain in children & young people for information specifically aimed at tamariki and rangatahi.
Chronic pain can affect your ability to function day to day. It can be draining and frustrating. It can also affect your relationships with whānau (family), friends and work colleagues.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do to live well with chronic pain.
Diagnosing chronic pain
Your general practice team will take a detailed story of your pain and how it affects your everyday life. They may want to send you away with some questions and ask you to keep a pain diary.
This information can help them tailor your treatment to your needs. It can also be helpful for you to think about what your triggers are and how your pain affects you. Asking your whānau or other support people to be involved in this process also helps.
Your doctor may organise tests to investigate further.
It is important to know that features in X-rays and scans may not correspond with pain levels. For example, one person could have a knee X-ray showing mild arthritis and be in lots of pain. Someone else could have a knee that looks very damaged in an X-ray but have no pain.
Treating chronic pain
It is understandable that you expect pain to be relieved with medicine or procedures such as surgery. But chronic pain is a long-term condition caused by changes to your body. This mean other approaches are needed to manage it.
Managing pain involves education and guidance in pain self-management. It also involves lifestyle changes and emotional and social support.
Medicines only have a small role to play in managing chronic pain. This is because they only help a few people, and it is normal not to find them useful. If you are taking a medicine, consider whether it is significantly reducing your pain and improving your quality of life. If not, you should stop taking it. But talk to your general practice team first. Some medications need to be reduced gradually.
Surgery is not an option for most chronic pain. If it is offered, it is important to be aware that while surgery may treat a condition, you may still have pain. There is also a risk that surgery will make the pain worse.
Self-care for chronic pain
Self-care is the most important part of managing your chronic pain and improving your quality of life. See Self-care for chronic pain for information about how you can help yourself.
Getting help for chronic pain
If you have chronic pain and it is affecting your quality of life, see your general practice team.
If your pain is complex, your general practice team may refer you to the Burwood Pain Management Centre. They may also refer you to the Burwood Pain Management Centre if your pain is not responding to treatment. There, you will be offered a series of online videos or invited to attend a half-day seminar at Burwood Hospital. The videos and seminar explain some ways of dealing with chronic pain and will help you find out if you would benefit from further treatment.
Pain management is a medical and clinical speciality. Many different types of professionals are involved in helping people to manage chronic pain. These may include occupational therapists, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers and psychologists.
HealthInfo recommends the following videos
- Healthify He Puna Wairoa – Personal stories about managing chronic pain
For personal stories about managing chronic pain, follow the link, scroll down the page and open the Personal stories block.
HealthInfo recommends the following pages
- Explain Pain, Manage your pain and Painful Yarns
Books for people experiencing chronic pain. You can borrow them from your local library, or you can buy them online.
- Pain Management Network – Introduction to pain
This page includes a short video explaining the differences between acute (short-term) and chronic pain. It also explains how retraining your nervous system can help to decrease your pain.
- New Zealand Pain Society – Navigating Pain
This document from NZPS explains chronic pain and provides advice about living well with pain.
On the next page: Frequently asked questions about chronic pain
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed February 2025.
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Review key: HICHP-79018
