Pain Management….?
Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at
7:26 pm
I hear people talk about pain management doctors.
Is it like therepy? How do they help with the pain?
Just wondering.
Thanks
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Tagged with: doctors • pain management
Filed under: Pain Management
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Pain Management docs are not just anesthetists. Mine is also a neurologist. They also do more than just put in morphine pumps. They can come from several specialties like neurology, anesthesiology, internal medicine, etc. and get specialized training in pain and modalities to treat it. They use pharmacological therapy (drugs), nerve block injections, support groups, surgery, TENS units, massage, and many, many, many more types of treatments. You see the doctor once a month, during which time he will refill your prescriptions (many use narcotics and most use a long acting med like Oxycontin along with a short acting med like Oxy IR for breakthrough pain) and adjust your dosages if your medication has stopped helping your pain adequately. You are also required to randomly bring in your bottles of medication for pill counts to ensure you are properly taking your medication and take random urine drug tests that test for specific substances like Oxycodone, Morphine, etc… as oposed to a regular urine drug test that just tests for the presence of opiates in general. They treat with a variety of medications, not just Methadone (I take Oxycontin, for example). People who come to pain clinics can have chronic pain for any number of reasons. Cancer is one of the main ones, but most Pain Management clinics treat intractable (can’t be cured) non- cancer pain, because cancer patients usually have their pain managed by their oncologists. I am in pain management for pelvic congestion. My husband goes for knee problems. Others go for post-amputation phantom limb pain, back problems, or any other type of intractable pain that doctors cannot find a cause for and/or that people have been advised that they should "learn to live with". No one has to live with chronic pain. These doctors can help. I couldn’t even get out of bed because of my pain this time last year, but now I have a full, wonderful life.
I actually make an ointment for physical pain. Mental pain and deeper internal pain need to have more Tryptpophan, as it will help invaluably with pain as well. 5HTP or Tryptophan are excellent source of pain relief depending on where the pain is. Certain companies make a lot of money off of trying to help people with pain relief.
A pain management specialist is a doctor who has training to treat chronic pain conditions. Chronic pain is a general term that describes a variety of symptoms, including cancer pain, neuropathic pain, back and neck conditions, etc.
There is a range of treatments available for chronic pain. They range from well-researched to experimental. Various medications (pain-killers, anti-depressants, anti-seizure medications, and many others) can be effective for treating chronic pain. Certain implantable devices (intrathecal pumps and spinal cord stimulators) have some shown encouraging results in some patients. Further, there are injections (epidural and other types) and nerve ablation treatments that can be used for specific diagnoses.
It’s also important to realize that pain has an important cognitive aspect. Most chronic pain patients need therapy, with a psychologist and/or psychiatrist, so they can develop appropriate coping mechanisms and improve their overall functioning. As such, pain management program often include psychotherapy geared toward these goals, physical therapy, and other modalities (acupuncture, biofeedback, etc).
Pain clinics are directed by physicians who are anesthetist. They are the doctors who put you to sleep in surgery. They also specialize in pain control issues and are very good at it.
Many patients who see these kind of doctors have chronic pain issues caused by everything from disk problems to chronic pancreatitis. These patients usually need above and beyond a simple pain pill.
The physicians insert morphine pumps under the skin. They treat patients with chronic pain with methadone which is used for long term chronic pain (same thing Nicole Smith was on)
They determine if a pt would benefit from a neurostimulator, or using massage or physical therapy to relieve long term pain. They inject steroids into the spinal area to relieve pain. They just cover the whole gamit. It takes a lot of patience to be able to treat these chronic painers. These physicians are experts in pain control issues.
Hope that helps. Im a cancer RN.