A number of conditions can leave a person living in chronic pain, which can be debilitating physically, mentally, and emotionally. If you are suffering from chronic pain, you do not have to deal with it on you own. Many hospitals, clinics, and medical centers offer services that are designed to assist people who live with chronic pain. While chronic pain services may not completely eliminate the pain that you experience on a day basis, they can make a big difference and help you cope and improve your quality of life. Some of the things that you can expect when you seek out chronic pain services include:
Properly Managing Medication
When it comes to chronic pain, narcotic pain killers alone are not the answer. Since narcotic pain killers can be highly addictive, many health care centers that offer chronic pain services have dedicated medical staff that work closely with patients to properly manage the medications used to help control pain. You can count on doctors and pharmacists that specialize in chronic pain services to work tirelessly to determine which medications work for you and what dosage is appropriate. In some cases, narcotic pain killers may be replaced by interventional anesthesiology treatments, such as epidurals, nerve blocks, or trigger point injections.
Emotional Support
Living with chronic pain affects more than just the body itself. It is not uncommon for patients who suffer from chronic pain to also experience depression since this condition can greatly impact a person's quality of life and make it difficult to engage in everyday tasks and activities that one used to enjoy. Emotional support is a very important part of chronic pain services offered by medical centers. Emotional support can take the form of individual counseling or group counseling sessions led by therapists who are highly experienced and trained to assist chronic pain patients.
Physical Therapy
While it is not always possible to eliminate the source of chronic pain through medical intervention and treatment, physical therapy can go a long way to help. Regular physical therapy sessions help increase a person's flexibility, core strength, and endurance, which can result in a decrease in pain. Physical therapists who work with chronic pain patients will use a combination of exercises and other proven techniques to help combat the pain. In order to make the biggest impact, it is important to attend all scheduled physical therapy sessions and also practice the exercises prescribed by your physical therapist at home.
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