Pain can affect your life and make it difficult to do everyday activities such as work or socializing. It can also lead to serious health problems like depression and anxiety.
Effective pain management involves lessening pain and improving your quality of life. This often requires the coordinated efforts of a team of health professionals.
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Chronic pain
Pain that doesn’t disappear can make working, sleeping and playing difficult. It can also affect your mental health and relationships. It’s a severe condition, so it’s essential to get it treated by a pain management specialist like Jordan Sudberg.
Chronic pain can be caused by an injury, illness or prolonged physical, emotional or social stress. It can also be a result of damage to nerves.
This type of pain is not always easy to treat and may require a combination of medicines. Your doctor will decide the best course of treatment for you.
Chronic pain is one of the most common medical conditions in the United States. It can be treated and managed effectively.
Breakthrough pain
Breakthrough pain is a type of flare-up that can happen even though you’re taking the regular pain medicine you need for your chronic pain. It can be unpredictable and last for as long as an hour.
It may be triggered by a specific activity (incident pain), be entirely unpredictable, or occur toward the end of around-the-clock medication (end-of-dose failure). Treatment for breakthrough pain often includes short-acting opioids.
It can often be successfully treated by tailoring opioid therapy based on the subtype of BTP, which determines the most appropriate opioid compound and mode of drug delivery. In addition, a pain diary may help detect patterns and factors associated with breakthrough pain, such as activities that trigger it.
Neuropathic pain
If you have neuropathic pain, your body is experiencing pain because of damage to the nerves that send signals from the brain and spinal cord to areas like your hands, feet, arms or legs. It may include stabbing, throbbing or numbing sensations that can make even simple activities such as walking difficult.
Your doctor will try to identify and treat your pain’s cause. Treatment aims to relieve your symptoms, maintain your standard capabilities and improve your quality of life.
In some cases, over-the-counter pain relievers or prescription medication can help, as can physical therapy and relaxation techniques. In other cases, your doctor may suggest nerve blocks or surgery to treat the nerves causing your pain.
Depending on the extent of your symptoms, you may also need to undergo some lab tests. These are used to determine what is causing your pain and whether there are any other medical conditions you need to be tested for.
Phantom pain
Phantom pain occurs when someone feels pain in a part of their body that is no longer there. The condition can happen after amputation, injury, or surgery.
It’s common for amputations to cause phantom pain. Symptoms can start right after surgery and last a long time.
When a part of your limb or other body part is removed, nerves become damaged and overexcited. These irritated nerves can cause spontaneous sensations like pain in your missing limb or other body parts.
Fortunately, there are ways to help prevent and manage phantom pain. Some include relaxation techniques, meditation, and activities that take your mind off the pain.
