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Multidisciplinary Pain Management is the gold standard when it comes to helping people with chronic pain recover their lives. Don't be fooled by health practitioners who claim to do pain management, yet only do one major thing for your pain, such as chiropractic adjustments or acupuncture. True multidisciplinary pain management involves physical therapy, massage, medication management, counseling, biofeedback, occupational therapy, exercise physiology, an anesthesiologist, a case manager and a surgeon all at one site, at a minimum. It may also involve some type of movement therapy such as Tai Chi, classes on spiritual wellness, yoga or meditation.
Though many programs include some type of pain treatment, is important to understand that the goal of pain management is to help you learn how to manage your pain. This can be rather shocking news to patients who are referred for pain management. They expect some kind of intervention to alleviate their pain, instead of learning ways of coping with it. If it is found that a patient was not afforded every effort to treat their pain, some type of acute intervention may be recommended and the patient withdrawn from the program.
This approach seems paradoxical, unless you or someone you know has been devastated by the syndrome of chronic pain. A patient with chronic pain is ruled by their pain. They no longer live their lives in terms of their hopes and dreams and aspirations. Instead, they are so overwhelmed by the failure of their pain to improve, that they are swept away by depression, anxiety, anger, fear, hopelessness, frustration and most importantly, grief. Their sense of loss is justified as they have usually lost a lot of what makes up a life. They may no longer feel they can work to support their family and their family may no longer give them the emotional support they need. At their center, they may have lost a sense of moving forward in their lives. They also become afraid to move physically or to actively use the part of their body that has caused the pain. It's as though they were frozen in fear.
A good pain management program begins with small steps. Physical Therapists coach patients to move more and to work with their bodies and not against them. They measure strength, flexibility, and stamina then set out a recovery plan for the patient. The Biofeedback Therapist teach patients how to relax tensed muscles, and if qualified may combine that with psychological counseling. Psychological assessment is performed by a Ph.D. psychologist, a psychiatrist, or both. Group and individual counseling helps patients to know that they are not alone in their struggle and gives them emotional support.
Medication management is overseen by a physician who specializes in Pain Management. How much pain a patient has to learn to live with varies according to the cause of their pain. But we each vary in our abilities to tolerate pain and those abilities can be learned. Of course, that it is simple doesn't mean it's easy. That is why it takes so many people from so many disciplines to coach each patient through a program. It is a challenging journey, for a patient to move from a life ruled by pain, focused on the what they can't do, to a fruitful life, focusing on what they can do. Those who make it learn to reframe their lives. Instead of withdrawing they become engaged in their lives again. In many senses of the word their lives are recovered.
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