Pain management and pain medicines are similar terms, telling us all
about how to get relief from excruciating pain. What is pain? Well, it
is an acerbic sensory and emotional experience related to possible
damages of the tissues. Acute pain, which comes with trauma, has a
two-sided cause and such a condition can only be cured with transient
measures that attempt to rectify the underlying cause of the pain and
discomfort. To treat short-term acute pain, you can go for standard
medications available over-the-counter, herbal and natural medicines as
well as alternative medicines.
Cancer, neuropathy and
referred pain are instances of chronic pain conditions, which are
extremely difficult to be detected and treated. In these cases, curing
the very causes is not an easy and immediate process. Pain management
is always done separately even after the underlying cause of the
ailment has been permanently rectified.
Pain management
enjoys benefits from a multidisciplinary approach including
pharmacological measures, non-pharmacological measures and a variety of
physiological measures like biofeedback and cognitive therapy.
Pharmacologic measures include analgesics such as narcotics or NSAIDs
and pain modifiers such as tricyclic antidepressants or
anticonvulsants. Interventional procedures, physical therapy and
physical exercise, application of ice and/or heat are examples of
non-pharmacological measures.
Practitioners of pain
management come from all fields of medicine. Most of these trained
medicos are anesthesiologists, neurologists, physiatrists or
psychiatrists. Some practitioners speak in support of pharmacological
management of the pain while others act in favor of interventional
management of pain. Interventional procedures are used for prolonged
back pain and it includes epidural steroid injections, facet joint
injections, neurolytic blocks, Spinal Cord Stimulators and intrathecal
drug delivery system implants, etc.
Are you in search of an
efficient pain management expert? If so, then make sure that the person
you are approaching has a proper training in this particular field and
that he is not a product of a “weekend workshop”. Almost all management
procedures are safe and harmless. Only epidural injections and spinal
cord stimulators can lead to fatal consequences if they are performed
by inexperienced and careless practitioners. In that case you have to
be very careful in matters of choosing the best and the most efficient
pain management practitioner.
A pain management
practitioner should be able to detect and treat the cause before
deciding on the strategy/therapy. The practitioner should have a clear
idea about the nature of the pain and whether the pain is acute or
chronic. The pain is brought under control by making use of medical
methods, psychological methods or alternative therapy approaches.
It
is indeed miserable when you suffer from pain. However, if you are in
safe hands, the pain management professional will choose the right
strategies suited to your condition and then there will be nothing to
worry about.