Physiatry and pain management

A comprehensive pain treatment approach 

At Prevea, treating chronic pain often requires a multi-faceted and integrated approach for our mind and body, which can include: 

• Tools to empower us with life skills that minimize pain, instead of reinforcing or amplifying it. 
• Medication and interventional procedures to reduce inflammation or minimize the sensation of pain. 
• Corrective care to the muscles or joints in order to find the root cause of the pain. This may include dietary changes, targeted home exercises, chiropractic care, physical therapy or surgery.

Based on the type or cause of chronic pain, an individual may have a comprehensive care team consisting of physiatrists, neuromusculoskeletal physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors and more. Each person’s individual care team works together to not only reduce pain, but help the individual rediscover a life they can once again enjoy. 

Understanding pain

To treat chronic pain, one needs to understand how pain is physiologically experienced and registered in our body, how it affects our body structure and mechanics, and how pain is the connection to the mental and emotional centers of our brain.  

The more individuals understand the pain they are experiencing, the better equipped they are to deal with pain. One item that must be addressed is a sense of loss of control. For most of a person’s life, when they got hurt, they soon recovered after the injury healed. With chronic pain, however, they have something they can’t control or get rid of.  

An important part of the healing process is to understand how an individual’s loss of control due to pain can spill over into other areas of life. It can affect relationships at work and at home and affect their ability to deal with life’s challenges, which can lead to increased anxiety and depression. Eventually, pain can become the focus of life.