Pain Management
Nobody likes to suffer pain. An unpleasant sensation, pain is a reaction of the body to physical illness, injury, or mental disease. Pain is generally divided into two categories acute and chronic. The former occurs suddenly because of injury suffered by a tissue. The injury can be inflicted by anything that damages body tissue, i.e., surgery, trauma or cancer. Heart rate and blood pressure usually rises in acute pain. But once the cause of the pain is eliminated, the pain normally goes away. Chronic pain, usually linked to a chronic disease, persists longer and lacks a clear cause. Chronic lower-back pain, chronic headaches, or cancer pain belongs to this category.
A pain management strategy usually depends on the nature of the pain, i.e., whether it is acute or chronic. Pain is generally managed by using medical methods, psychological methods or alternative therapy approaches. In the case of short-term acute pain caused by a trauma, standard medications available over the counter, herbal or natural remedies and alternative medicines can be used. Chronic pain is harder to tackle, as it lasts longer and is more complex.
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Pain management doctors in most cases happen to be anesthesiologists. Anesthesiologists ensure that you are safe, pain-free and comfortable during and after surgery. They are also at work in the labor and delivery area, or in doctors’ chambers where painful medical tests or procedures are performed. But the methods applied by anesthesiologists have now traveled beyond these familiar territories, and led to the development of a new category of medicine known as pain medicine.
In many cases, an anesthesiologist heads a team of other specialists and doctors who work together to alleviate your pain. The anesthesiologist or other pain medicine doctors like neurologists, oncologists, orthopedists, physiatrists and psychiatrists, and non-physician specialists like nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical or rehabilitation therapists and psychologists, join together to assess your condition. After a thorough assessment, this team of specialists develops a treatment plan just for you.
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