Chronic Pain Management
Chronic Pain Management
Chronic pain management makes use of several modes of treatment to alleviate the pain. Read on to find out more…
Chronic pain is defined as pain, which persists longer than the temporal course of natural healing and/or is associated with a particular type of injury or disease process.
Chronic Pain Management
Since there can be several causes of chronic pain, there are several different types of treatments for chronic pain management. Chronic pain management can also make use of combination of different types of drugs in order to treat the causes of chronic pain. Here are the various types of therapies that are used in chronic pain management:
Medication/Drug Therapy
Medication is usually the treatment of choice for milder form of chronic pain. Over-the-counter medications such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used for milder forms of pain. Both acetaminophen and NSAIDs relieve pain, which is caused by muscle aches and stiffness, but NSAIDs can also reduce inflammation. There also exist topical pain relievers in the form of creams, lotions, or sprays, which are directly applied to the skin in order to relieve the pain. In case the regular over-the-counter drugs fail to provide relief, the mode of treatment includes stronger medications like muscle relaxants, anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, or prescription NSAIDs.
Trigger Point Injections
Trigger point injection is a pain management procedure, which is used to treat painful areas of muscles that contain trigger points of the pain. During this procedure, a health care professional, injects a local anesthetic, which makes the trigger point inactive and alleviates the pain.
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Therapy
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation therapy referred to as TENS, uses electrical stimulation to alleviate pain by delivering a low-voltage electrical current through electrodes that are placed on the skin near the source of pain. This therapy helps in short-term pain relief.
Bioelectric Therapy
Bioelectric therapy is a process in chronic pain management, which alleviates the pain by blocking pain messages to the brain by prompting body to produce chemicals called endorphins, which decrease or eliminate painful sensations.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy, also popularly known as physiotherapy helps to relieve pain by using special techniques that improve movement and function. Physical therapy has many specialties, which include branches like cardiopulmonary, geriatrics, neurology, orthopedic and pediatrics.
Psychological Therapy
Psychological issues like depression, anxiety or stress can aggravate or at times even create pain. Psychological treatment helps to reduce high levels of physiological stress and thus relieves the pain.
Surgical Implants
At times when medication and physical therapy fails to relief, surgical implants are an option used to in pain management. There are two main types of surgical implants used in chronic pain management – the intrathecal drug delivery implant and the spinal cord stimulation implants.
Alternative Therapy
Although alternative therapy faces strong criticism from medical practitioners, it is known to be effective in several cases. Alternative therapy usually refers to the healing practices that are not included in the realm of conventional medicine. These include mind-body therapies, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic therapies, therapeutic touch, or even herbal therapies.
Read more about Pain Management.
| By Uttara Manohar Published: 11/8/2008 |
