Research Leads to New Ways to Treat Chronic Pain in Florida

Research Leads to New Ways to Treat Chronic Pain

Treating chronic pain is much easier today because there are many new techniques and medications that allow doctors to pinpoint better the source of the discomfort.

Research has led to drugs that have fewer side effects too, as we have a better understanding of how chronic pain develops. The typical pain causes such as car accidents, injuries from sports activities, and traditional back injuries have established treatment forms, as do health conditions associated with cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and migraine headaches.

When the Chronic Pain Cause is Unknown

Determining what causes chronic pain can be frustrating when it doesn’t begin from known injuries or diseases. Even when pain is highly concentrated, it does not always give signs of the cause.

Not so long ago, patients often were told that they were imagining pain when there was no obvious cause. As doctors have become available who are pain specialists, there is a much better understanding as to how and why pain occurs. The brain sends the message through a close relationship with the nervous system and spinal cord.

The neurotransmitter system is the key underlying way that pain is recognized and passed along to the brain. Controlling these chemical messengers and manipulating how they communicate with the brain is the central treatment technique employed for pain.

One of the great advancements in medical research has to do with MRI imaging, which shows clearly where pain originates in the brain as stimuli are applied. Antidepressants have proven valuable in the treatment of pain because they can address these sensations within the mind. Emotion and pain have a strong connection as shown by clinical testing.

Central Sensitization

One of the facts learned through chronic pain research has been what happens when pain is not treated immediately following an injury. Unless these pains are addressed as they should be, the signals for pain will keep repeating, affecting the central nervous system. Sensations will become very developed and even a gentle touch will cause a person great pain.

More Effective Control of Chronic Pain

Because pain is understood better today, doctors now can attack the pain in different ways depending on its severity. New medications and better ways of targeting the nerves that realize the pain sensations have decreased the time that patients suffer from chronic pain.

Psychotherapy, alternative therapies, and relaxation techniques all contribute to the various ways of addressing pain. Research has strongly supported the evidence of a connection between body and mind in pain control that can be treated in many more ways than was once possible.

The Florida Pain Network connects those in pain with pain clinics and doctors. The Network has listings for pain clinics in Orlando, Port St Lucie pain management, pain clinics in Palm Beach County and many more.

You can find the listings closes to you online HERE or simply call (877) 877-8556 for assistance.