Prioritizing People Over Pain

The sensation of pain is often the result of multiple factors, including physical, mental, and environmental ones. That’s why pain management doctors focus on “whole-person” medicine and improving a patient’s overall health instead of just managing their symptoms.

By treating the whole person, a doctor can help patients understand how their mindset and mental health affect their pain. Science tells us that issues like depression, PTSD, fearfulness of pain, and even patient expectations can influence how pain is experienced.

A Better Approach to Pain Management

Medication can be useful for managing pain, but it’s not a substitute for a thorough treatment plan aimed at resolving health conditions and other issues. Factors such as sleep, stress management, diet, posture, ergonomics, and activity level can contribute to or help alleviate pain.

Underlying health conditions may be directly or indirectly related to pain. For example, did you know undetected nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune diseases like lupus, and conditions like Lyme disease can cause pain? You may also feel pain in one area of the body that originates somewhere else (called referred pain). Experienced pain doctors will do more than say, “Show me where it hurts.” They will perform diagnostic procedures to identify underlying health conditions, and they will consider how external factors (your occupation, for example) might be affecting your health.

Individualized Care

Doctors who consider the whole person will work to establish a collaborative, ongoing relationship with patients because treatment is most effective when patients are actively involved in their own care. No two people with chronic pain are the same, so their treatment plans shouldn’t be the same, either.

Center for Pain Management uses minimally invasive techniques to help people feel well again. Contact us today to make an appointment at 317-706-7246.