Did you know that in most chronic pain cases the cause is a chronic condition? Pain is the main symptom of chronic conditions because it affects the nerves, muscles, and organs that cause pain in the body. However, several techniques can help you manage the pain and improve your quality of life. Learn how to manage pain caused by chronic conditions in this article. Log on to www.doralhw.org for a consultation.
Chronic conditions that cause pain
Chronic conditions cause sharp pain depending on the part that gets affected. Most of the time, underlying causes along with several factors are the reason for pain. Here are some common chronic conditions that cause pain, including:
- Cluster headaches:
It is a rare type of headache that causes extremely intense clusters of pain which makes you uncomfortable and restless to perform daily activities. The pain is very severe and often seen along with a migraine-like aura on one side of the head. The pain can peak in 5 to 10 minutes and intensifies for the next 3 hours or so. It may often go away but can happen up to 8 times a day.
- Herpes zoster or shingles:
It is a viral disease that affects the nerves and causes sharp, shooting, and burning pain, along with other symptoms like itching, tingling, rash, and fluid-filled blisters. It is caused by the same virus, the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) that causes chicken pox, which means it can live inside the body and attack the nerves after chickenpox. It may reactivate when you are in contact with people with shingles. It is a very painful condition, which gets worse with age and weakened immunity.
- Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS):
It is a chronic pain condition that affects one of your feet, hands, legs, or arms after an injury. It happens from damage or malfunction of the peripheral and central nervous system. The pain can feel like a burning, sharp, or squeezing sensation. Aside from severe pain, you may experience symptoms like changes in skin color, temperature, or swelling of the affected limb.
- Sickle cell disease:
It is a group of blood disorders that affects the structure of hemoglobin, the component of blood that carries oxygen. This disease can alter the form of hemoglobin into a sickle or crescent. This causes periodic episodes of pain called sickle cell crises. The pain occurs when the sickle-shaped RBCs get together inside the small blood vessels in the abdomen, joints, and chest, and block the blood flow. In some cases, pain occurs in bones as well.
- Arthritis:
It is a chronic condition that affects bones and joints and causes inflammation. The main symptoms you experience will include pain, stiffness, and swelling that affect your mobility and get worse as you age. It has many types, but the most common ones are – osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gouty arthritis. The pain you experience makes you feel like a dull ache or a burning sensation.
- Migraine headache:
A migraine is a type of chronic headache that causes moderate to severe pain of a pulsing or throbbing character. The pain usually occurs from one side of the head and causes other symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to sound and light. The pain can last for hours and even days which is very severe and debilitating.
- Sciatica:
It is a chronic condition that causes pain in the path of the sciatic nerve, which is the longest nerve in the body, running from the hips to the feet. When this nerve gets pressed or irritated, it causes pain. The pain can occur from the lower lumbar spine to the buttock to down the back of the leg. It ranges from moderate to severe, along with other sensations like tingling, weakness, and numbness on the affected leg. Severe sciatica can cause debilitating pain which prevents movement.
Besides these chronic conditions, many conditions cause neuropathic, musculoskeletal, visceral, and inflammatory pain.
Pain management
To manage your pain, the doctor will diagnose your specific type of pain, disease, or condition. The main goal of your treatment focuses on providing the highest level of function and independence possible which improves your overall life quality – physically, emotionally, and socially. Pain management techniques also help you to lower your suffering. Common pain management treatment may include:
- Medications:
Medications like over-the-counter (OTC) or prescription pain medicines are used to relieve your pain. Generally, pain is managed with OTC pain relievers like aspirin or acetaminophen. In case your pain is severe, the doctor recommends a strong dose of pain medicine to relieve your pain. These drugs are reserved for certain types of pain because it has the risk of abuse and severe side effects involved. For some people, antidepressants are prescribed to manage the pain of nerves. These medicines increase the natural supply of neurotransmitters, serotonin, and norepinephrine which send pain-controlling signals to the brain.
- Heat and cold treatments:
Heat and cold treatments at home can lower the stiffness and pain, especially with joint problems like arthritis.
- Physical and occupational therapy:
This improves the strength and mobility of the joints and muscles with exercises, massage, and whirlpool treatments. Exercise can also help to reduce spasticity, joint contractures, joint inflammation, spinal alignment problems, or muscle weakening and shrinking to prevent further problems.
- Electrical stimulation:
This electrical stimulation uses pulses of electricity to nerve endings under the skin to provide pain relief.
- Injection therapies:
Different steroid injections like epidural steroid injections are used to relieve joint and muscle pain when other treatment options fail to provide relief.
- Emotional and psychological support:
Several ways provide emotional and psychological support for pain, including:
- Psychotherapy and group therapy
- Stress management
- Relaxation training
- Meditation
- Hypnosis
- Biofeedback
- Behavior changes
These psychological approaches are believed to help with controlling your pain on your own. It also includes changing your attitudes like not considering yourself a victim, feelings, or behaviors associated with pain, or understanding how unconscious forces and past events lead to pain. You and your loved ones need to be educated about the condition that causes you pain so that they provide you with emotional and mental support. Counseling and therapy treatments also play a crucial role in this.
Besides these treatments, you can consider:
- Surgery: This is recommended for chronic pain when other treatments fail to produce any results. It may lower or reduce your pain significantly, but can affect your other sensations as well which might become a new source of pain. So, the pain relief with surgery is temporary, not always permanent. You need to consult with your doctor about the type of surgery you should take to relieve pain.
- Acupuncture: It is an old Chinese technique to insert fine needles under the skin at selected points in the body, which relieves chronic pain. However, you need a professional to do this treatment.
Most chronic conditions cause sharp pain as their main symptom, but it is not fully understood how. It is believed that different chronic conditions affect different body parts and functions that cause pain like arthritis causes inflammatory pain by causing inflammation to joints and muscles. Additionally, chronic conditions affect the risk factors that contribute to pain. However, you can manage your pain symptoms with the help of the pain management techniques mentioned above and improve your life quality.
Need help with chronic pain, visit our pain management clinic in Brooklyn to get professional medical help. Call us to book your appointment now!!!
Your pain needs professional assistance, visit our pain management clinic in Brooklyn today or call to get a consultation. The location at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212 is well-served by public transportation, including many bus routes, and the subway line. Visit our website at http://www.painmanagementbrooklyn.com/ or contact us on +1-347-384-5690 for additional details.
