Hand Pain refers to pain experienced due to inflammation, injury to or irritation of the structures in the Hand and the Wrist. Hand Pain can be felt as pain in the wrist, the palm of the hand, the fingers, and even sometimes in the elbow of the affected arm. This is because the muscles that control the movement of the fingers and the position of the wrist have their origin at the elbow of the arm, and project to the wrist and fingers by means of their tendonous attachments.
Hand Pain is most commonly caused by over-use of the hand or fingers, by injury, or by age-related changes to the joints of the hand and fingers. The wrist, hand, and fingers consist of more than thirty bones of various sizes, and more than forty muscles. All of these bones and muscles need to articulate in concert to make the hands move, and produce both powerful and fine movements depending on what we are doing. We write, work, exercise and play with our hands because they are designed to produce a nearly infinite combination of movements to help us interact with the world. During the course of this interaction, we may over-exert ourselves and cause ourselves injury, or we may cause irritation of the fine structures within the hand as a result of our doing the same movements over and over again without taking time to relax and soothe those working parts. The importance of rest and recuperation becomes more significant with age, where osteoarthritis alone affects approximately 8% of adults, with prevalence increasing steadily with age (Wan et al., 2022), while musculoskeletal pain of various types affects nearly all adults at some point, often linked to repetitive strain or overuse (International Association for the Study of Pain, 2022), and the burden of musculoskeletal disorders has risen steadily over the past three decades, with a 49% increase in total cases between 1990 and 2019 (Bouziri et al., 2023).
Hand Pain can be localised to different parts of the hand, the wrist, the connecting muscles, and can also be distinguished by how long the pain has been present. An episode of Hand Pain that lasts for less than six weeks is called Acute Hand Pain. Pain that lasts longer than six weeks but less than twelve is called Sub-Acute Hand Pain, and pain that lasts longer than twelve weeks is called Chronic Hand Pain.
Management of Hand Pain is a process that involves addressing physical, occupational, personal, and lifestyle risk factors to minimise pain and maximise function. The treatment you receive will be tailored to address the specific cause of your Hand Pain, and will focus on minimising pain, maximising your ability to move pain free, and developing a plan to minimise the risk of a flare-up in the future. Management of Hand Pain is sometimes tricky because we need to use our hands and arms to live our lives comfortably. How your discomfort is managed depends on what’s causing it, how it feels and shifts throughout the day, what eases or aggravates it, and how long you’ve been living with it. These details are carefully explored during your first assessment, which sets the foundation for reducing pain and improving comfort. From there, your treatment plan is personalised to target the underlying cause, with a focus on easing pain, restoring free movement, and building strategies to lower the chance of future flare-ups.
At Atlas Physio, we’re here to guide you with clear education, structured management, and consistent monitoring of your progress both in the clinic and at home. To make care simple and accessible, we’re open seven days a week with evening appointments available, we bulk bill eligible clients, and there’s no gap fee for WorkCover or TAC clients. Get in touch today to take the first step toward moving with ease and confidence, supported by care that is practical, dependable, and designed to deliver lasting results.
REFERENCES
Bouziri, H., Roquelaure, Y., Descatha, A., Dab, W., & Jean, K. (2023). Temporal and spatial distribution of musculoskeletal disorders from 1990 to 2019: A systematic analysis of the global burden of disease. BMJ Public Health, 1(1)
International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). (2022). Epidemiology of musculoskeletal pain. Retrieved 13th December 2025 from https://www.iasp-pain.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Epidemiology_Final.pdf
Wan, J., Qian, X., He, Z., Zhu, Z., Cheng, P., & Chen, A. (2022). Epidemiological trends of hand osteoarthritis from 1990 to 2019: Estimates from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study. Frontiers in Medicine, 9, 922321