Doctors, in their many forms, have worked to help relieve patient pain for as long as history records medical practice. But it was not until the 1990s that Western medicine finally embraced pain management as a medical specialty. The introduction of the pain medicine specialty was the direct result of coming to an understanding that we needed alternative, interventional therapies rather than always relying on painkilling medications and invasive surgeries.
The specialty has evolved considerably over the last 30 years. Back in its early days, practitioners were focused on identifying interventional treatments. These days, with so many treatments established and approved, the focus has shifted to restoring lost function.
One could make the case that restoring function should be the goal of pain medicine from day one. It is certainly a primary focus at Lone Star Pain Medicine in Weatherford, Texas. Lone Star’s approach to pain management inexorably links function to quality of life and overall well-being.
Suppression Without Function: A Trap
The traditional Western way to treat chronic pain is to rely on high-dose oral medications to suppress what patients are feeling. Medications can dull pain signals. They can take the edge off. But prescription meds rarely fix the underlying structural or mechanical issues. Therein lies the trap of suppression without function.
When pain forces a patient to stop moving, that person’s body deconditions very quickly. Joints stiffen and muscles get weak. Cardiovascular fitness also declines. Most patients even experience measurable declines in mood. This creates what is known as the deconditioning cycle.
The cycle is pretty simple to understand. Chronic pain leads to avoiding movement, which leads to muscle weakness and stiffness. The result is more pain. More pain equals even less movement. A person stuck in this loop will experience a gradual loss of function and a notable reduction in quality of life.
Restoring Function Shifts the Clinical Narrative
By focusing more on restoring function than pain suppression, pain medicine doctors shift the clinical narrative from “How do we numb the pain?” to “What does the patient need his or her body to be able to do again?” The difference is profound when you see it in action.
Pain medicine doctors, like those at Lone Star, can turn to interventional therapies like radiofrequency ablation and image-guided injections to isolate and quiet the source of a patient’s pain. In doing so, they can open a crucial window of physical opportunity by encouraging the patient to re-engage with their body safely. In the real world, function focuses on a number of milestones:
- Improving mobility and stamina
- Increasing restorative sleep
- Increasing independence
- Improving mental well-being
It is important to understand that all four milestones are interrelated. They all play off one another to create a positive feedback loop that is just as powerful an influence as the deconditioning cycle.
A Multilayered, Interventional Approach
It is worth noting that restoring function is rarely possible through a single therapy. That is why pain medicine, as a medical specialty, is more likely to follow a multilayered, interventional approach to helping patients.
The first layer might involve an interventional therapy to relieve pain. The second layer encourages physical therapy to regain muscle strength and mass. A third layer might be a psychological treatment, like CBT, to help a patient better understand how the brain processes pain.
By employing this multilayered approach, doctors can help patients not only restore function but also take their lives back. It’s a far better way to treat chronic pain than simply writing a prescription and sending the patient out the door.
