What is Pain management
Pain management is a medical specialty recommended for patients with chronic pain. It is rapidly gaining popularity. It can be simple or complex, depending on the cause of the pain. It can affect a particular body part like the hip, back, or neck, or all-over body. The pain can come in the form of headaches, back pain, and referred pain in which the injury affects nerves that affect other parts of the body such as the arms in a neck condition or the legs in the case of a lower back nerve issue. There is also pain that occurs as a result of a medical condition such as cancer, arthritis, scoliosis, osteoporosis or degenerative disc disease. Day-to-day life can be a battle when you’ve got chronic pain. Each type of pain also has a different cause. There are many different pain management options available, and you can find the right treatment combination to get the relief you need. Pain management is used to help improve the lives of people living with pain.
There are many treatments that can be used for managing pain. Pain experienced in different areas of the body is caused by different conditions. That’s why it requires different treatment options and procedures. Several pain management strategies that can be applied in order to cope with chronic pain are:
- Relaxation training – Taking slow, deep breaths for releasing tension from muscles provides relief from pain.
- Hypnosis – In this method, a patient can be hypnotized and he will be in a better mental state to deal with pain.
- Biofeedback – It makes use of a special machine. It helps you to control your body functions, such as heart rate and muscle tension.
- Behavioral Therapy – It helps change a patient’s mood such that they are able to mask pain
- Visual imagery – In this method, you will be visualizing mental pictures, words or phrases, images and events. This will help you to reduce pain.
- Massage therapy – It can relax the brain causing it to release hormones that can mask pain.
- Acupuncture – It involves the use of needles which are inserted into specific parts of the body causing therapeutic relief of pain.
- Drug therapy – Commonly used prescription drugs for the pain management are Tramadol, Soma, Celebrex, and Fioricet. Each one is used for a specific pain condition.