Chronic pain – generally defined as pain lasting longer than 3 months – is the leading cause of disability (pdf link) among people under the age of 45. It is also a leading cause of lost workplace productivity. In fact, chronic pain is such a widespread and costly problem that it affects more Americans than diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer, combined.
A pain management specialist will often consider prescribing an invasive treatment procedure, such as surgery, to combat chronic pain. If you have found these options to be unsuccessful for your chronic pain, consider the variety of non-invasive chronic pain treatments that are available at your local pain management clinic.
What are the top 3 causes of chronic pain?
Chronic pain is a categorical term that covers a wider variety of conditions. Each condition under this umbrella benefits from a different combination of treatment options. According to recent medical studies, these are the three most common types of chronic pain:
Back Pain – across the board, chronic back pain is the most common type of recurring pain. While this pain can be caused by an accident or injury, a growing number of back pain sufferers can’t trace the origins of their pain to a specific root cause.
Headache Pain – whether migraine or not, severe headache pain is the leading cause of lost productivity in American workplaces. An average of 3.5 hours of productivity per week is lost, due to headache pain.
Joint Pain – this form of chronic pain, often caused by arthritis, injury and accidents, can severely inhibit a person’s ability to function normally. As expected, joint pain sufferers often find even normal movement to be painful, not to mention more stringent physical activities like running, lifting and exercising.
Chronic pain can also strike areas of your body, such as your abdomen, chest, face or legs, but these forms of chronic pain are much less common than the top-three. If you are experiencing any long-lasting pain, make sure to schedule an appointment with a qualified pain management specialist.
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What are my pain management treatment options?
Chronic pain covers so many types of physiological issues that it is difficult to provide an exhaustive list of every treatment option available. Many of the more common treatment options involve invasive procedures, like surgeries and injection regimens. These can have side effects as challenging as the chronic pain. That said, here are some of the non-invasive treatment options that your pain management specialist may be able to prescribe as part of your overall pain management and treatment plan.
Medications
Surprisingly, your pain management specialist might begin treatment with common over-the-counter medications like aspirin, ibuprofen, anti-inflammatory medications, and/or topical pain-relief creams. These treatment options serve as diagnostic tools, helping the specialist to determine if your pain is caused by inflammation, nerve problems, or another issue. In cases of more extreme pain however, your specialist may prescribe narcotics to reduce the pain to a more manageable level. Of course, narcotic-based medications carry many side effects, including a risk of abuse and addiction, so this option is only exercised in more extreme cases.
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