Pain Management

Pain Management at New Hampshire NeuroSpine Institute

Pain is a condition that strikes as much as 20 percent of the population around the world and more than 76 million people in the United States alone. Fortunately there are also many pain management methods to help you take control of your pain, which is especially important if you are experiencing chronic pain.

How Pain Is Treated

There are many different ways to treat pain, and the most appropriate pain management method for you will depend on several factors: how severe the pain is, how it affects your life, how frequently you find yourself dealing with pain, and the actual cause of your pain.

If possible, the most effective treatment of any medical condition is to get rid of the offending cause. When it comes to chronic pain, this method might not be possible.

Most of the time, the goal of treatment is to decrease the intensity of your pain and make you functionally better. For acute pain, this goal is often met successfully. But chronic pain — pain lasting for at least three months or more — has a different effect on the nervous system and may need to be treated differently.

A multidisciplinary approach, using a combination of pain management treatments and techniques, is often the most successful way to manage chronic pain. This approach can include:

• • Physical therapy
• • An individualized exercise program
• • Heat and cold therapy, TENS unit and other physical modalities
• • Blocking nerves from pain at particular points (Spinal injections, nerve root blocks, trigger point injections and more)
• • Medications to manage pain, such as analgesics, various topical agents, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and in some cases opiods
• • Botox injections
• • Surgery for appropriate cases

No matter which combination of pain management techniques are used, staying with that combination approach is often the most effective method. With the physiological and psychosocial changes that occur in chronic pain, a multidisciplinary approach is the most appropriate treatment strategy.

Each person is unique in their response to the chronic pain state. The most effective way to treat chronic pain is to adjust the strategy to suit each pain syndrome individually based on lifestyles, causes and pain thresholds. Developing a good physician-patient relationship is essential for constructing an individual approach for achieving desired treatment goals in a compassionate and dignified manner.Pain is a condition that strikes as much as 20 percent of the population around the world and more than 76 million people in the United States alone. Fortunately there are also many pain management methods to help you take control of your pain, which is especially important if you are experiencing chronic pain.