Advanced Pain Management Intervention
When pain persists, treatments that address biopsychosocial contributors to pain are more successful than physical treatments alone. Chronic pain involves different areas of the brain than acute pain, and, therefore, effective treatment must address these brain contributors in order to offer relief.
What is chronic pain?
Chronic pain is any pain that lasts greater than 3 months. Research shows that transitions from acute to chronic pain are related to changes in the way the brain creates pain. Knowing more about how chronic pain develops allows us to provide better care for treating longer lasting pain, and also offer support that reduces the risk of pain persisting, either after a new orthopedic diagnosis or after surgery.
Some conditions associated with chronic pain include:
- Arthritis
- Lower back pain
- Cancer
- Nerve damage
- Multiple sclerosis
- Shingles
- Fibromyalgia
- Headache
- Fractures
Pain Management Interventions
Successful chronic pain management involves a biopsychosocial approach, so treatments are diverse and often include patient involvement. Some possible treatment options include:
Medications: These include over-the-counter analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, opioids, muscle relaxants, antidepressant, and anticonvulsant medications.
Physical therapy: Including specific exercises for pain relief and improved function and physical modalities such as heat and cold application, electric current, and manual therapy
Alternative therapies: Including acupuncture, massage, chiropractice treatments, and mind mody approaches such as meditation/mindfulness, stress management, emotional regulation, and nervous system regulation.
Psychological Therapy: Chronic pain often involves the emotional centers of the brain, and research has shown that psychotherapy can be highly impactful in changing pain. For more information on psychotherapy approaches specific to pain, visit The Pain Psychology Center
Advanced Pain Management Interventions
Additional procedural approaches to treating pain can be helpful in particular situations, especially in the setting of acute pain that occurs postoperatively. Ask your clinician about the advanced pain management interventions listed below if you feel they could be helpful to your pain management strategy.
Patient-controlled analgesia: This technique is useful for patients recovering from surgery. A computerized pump is activated by the patient at the press of a button when increased pain is felt and delivers analgesics through an IV line.
Nerve blocks: A nerve or group of nerves transmitting pain impulses are blocked by drugs or radiation.
Trigger point injections: In certain conditions, muscles do not relax properly forming “knots” and may be associated with pain. Your doctor injects the site of the muscle knot to relieve pain. Trigger point injections are useful for muscle pain in the arms, legs, and back associated with conditions such as fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome.
Multimodal Pain Management
The American Pain Society (APS) has proposed the use of multimodal pain management strategies to treat chronic pain and overcome the dangers of opioid addiction.
This strategy of pain management is reported to be successful in many patients particularly during or after orthopedic surgery and has minimal side effects.
To learn more about a more comprehensive approach to managing and healing both acute and chronic pain, please reach out to us.
Advantages of Multimodal Pain Management
It has been clearly defined in research that single modality treatments, such as depending on medication alone, do not work in the treatment of chronic pain. Multimodal approaches, however, show great success, and, often, with less side effects.
