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What is Pain Management?

Pain management, or pain medicine, is a growing medical specialty dedicated to treating acute, sub-acute, and chronic pain. The goal of pain medicine is to improve quality of life and help patients return to everyday activities, ideally without surgery.
A pain management physician is often part of a team of medical professionals, such as the patient’s referring physician, physical and occupational therapists, oncologist, and psychiatrist, or psychologist – this is called a multidisciplinary approach.

Acute, Sub-acute & Chronic Pain
Pain is generally classified as being acute or chronic.

  • Acute pain begins suddenly and may be severe. However, acute pain lasts a short time (always under three to six months, sometimes just a few days or hours) and then goes away on its own.
  • Chronic pain may be mild or severe and is characterized by its persistence. It has been defined as pain lasting longer than six months.
  • Sub-acute pain is defined as being between acute and chronic.

It is also possible for acute pain to transition into chronic pain.

Patient Pain Evaluation 

diagnosis
A careful diagnosis by a trained pain management specialist is an important first step to helping you feel better.

The pain specialist typically begins with a comprehensive medical history and then a physical and possibly neurological examination to determine the source of the pain. The pain specialist may ask if the pain was associated with a specific event, accident, or injury and if the pain has changed over time, for example, in terms of intensity, duration, associated symptoms (such as nausea or weakness), and what relieves or worsens it. Pain patients are encouraged to record pain symptoms and activities or events in “pain diaries” that can be a great help to the physician diagnosing a painful condition.
Pain is typically rated along a scale of zero to 10 with zero being no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable. A pain examination may involve pain rankings. The patient may be presented with a drawing of the front and back of the body and asked to indicate where he or she feels pain, rate it from zero to 10, and describe it (burning, dull, throbbing, sharp, tingling).

In the case of pediatric patients, a similar rating scale is used but instead of numbers, children are asked to rate their pain using a pain faces diagram (smiling and frowning faces).
FACES_header

Depending on the type of pain, the pain specialist may also order a computed tomography (CT) scan, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, or other tests.
Spinal injections may be required to obtain diagnostic information about the nerves associated with the pain. Many types of spinal injections provide valuable diagnostic information such as a Facet Joint and Medial Nerve Branch Block.

Read More About Facet Injections & Medial Branch Blocks

Treatment Options

Pain specialists develop pain treatment programs tailored to meet the needs of each individual patient. In so doing, they take into account:
 The type and nature of the pain
 The pain history
 The patient’s overall health and any other diseases the patient has
 The patient’s mental health, including a history of substance abuse
 The patient’s family situation
 The patient’s preferences

Many pain specialists rely on combination therapy, that is, they recommend more than one type of treatment. Some patients are surprised to learn that a treatment that failed to provide relief before is effective when combined with one or more therapies.
Pain specialists may also counsel patients to manage their expectations. Sometimes complete pain relief is not possible. Some treatments may provide only partial relief but when combined with other treatments can offer significant relief.
Among the treatment options that pain specialists use are:
Medications
 Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
 Muscle relaxants
 Anti-depressants
 Anti-seizure drugs (these have been found effective in treating certain types of neuropathic pain)
 Narcotics (opioids)

Injection Therapies

Read More About the Wide Variety of Treatments We Offer

Pain Management Improves Quality of Life

Advances in pain medicine help thousands of pain patients every day.  There are many ways to control pain and improve your quality of life.  Many patients live with unnecessary pain. Pain specialists can provide the latest information about pain management.

The Ainsworth Institute is Here to Help
Most physicians can refer patients dealing with chronic pain to a qualified pain specialist. Pain can be complex to treat and certain types of pain may only be well controlled after treatment by a pain specialist. The experts at Ainsworth Institute offer the most advanced pain management treatments available today, including advanced clinical trials that aren’t available to the general public. Call us today for an appointment so we can get you started on your road to recovery.