Color The World Orange: Raising Awareness For Chronic Pain Condition That Can Last A Lifetime
PHILADELPHIA(CBS) -- Orange will be the color of the day on November 6 to bring attention to a painful condition that can last a lifetime.
Color the World Orange is an annual event held the first Monday of November to spread awareness of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.
CRPS affects four times as many women as men, according to Dr. John Farrar, associate professor of neurology, epidemiology and anesthesia at the University of Pennsylvania. He says it's a chronic burning pain.
"It occurs after either a known injury where a nerve is specifically cut, or an injury that we presume to have happened," Farrar explained. "It is usually related to a surgical procedure or damage to a nerve that occurs by trauma or by accident."
Medication and nerve stimulation can manage the pain, but there is no cure.
"We find that over the course of time, neuropathic pain will get better in some portion of the patients who have it, we don't know the exact number," Farrar said. "But in general it never goes away completely."
