Does a pain management doctor specialize in medication or what?
January 17th, 2009 | by Michael |
Rhymenoserus asked:
I’m curious because I’m having back surgery next week and my primary has been prescribing my meds. We talked and he wants me to find a specialist for meds after surgery. Who can I go to, my surgeon is 4 hours away so he said find someone local is that pain management or is that something else.
CLIFFORD
I’m curious because I’m having back surgery next week and my primary has been prescribing my meds. We talked and he wants me to find a specialist for meds after surgery. Who can I go to, my surgeon is 4 hours away so he said find someone local is that pain management or is that something else.
CLIFFORD
5 Responses to “Does a pain management doctor specialize in medication or what?”
By Gellar on Jan 19, 2009 | Reply
A pain management specialist is educated in the best ways to help you manage your pain. This is usually done by a combination of painkillers, exercises, and relaxation techniques. This guys really know how to help reduce your pain.
By Mikey on Jan 22, 2009 | Reply
Yes and no. They work on controlling pain, not masking it. This may include using smaller doses of multiple drugs rather than larger doses of fewer drugs. Physical therapy and other non-traditional methods may also be used.
By Nurse Nice on Jan 23, 2009 | Reply
A pain management doctor treats patients with chronic pain. The prescribe pain medications, usually narcotics.
By Chas on Jan 23, 2009 | Reply
I’ve been in a pain management program for a spine injury for about 7 years. I’ve had a couple of spine operations.
They treat chronic pain with varies methods. PT, medications, whatever they think will help.
Here is something I do everyday, and have for the past 7 years that has really help me become part of the process.
I keep a daily journal about my pain. Nothing fancy, I use a seno pad for each 3 months or as needed that was if needed me or the doctors can review the info. I see my doctor every 3 months. I record:
When I hurt
Where I hurt
How bad the pain is on a scale of 1-10
for me it’s also what kind of pain, nerve, muscle
How the pain is effecting your daily life. What things you can’t do because of it.
It’s hard to communicate with your doctor when you only have a few minutes so the journal helps the doctor better understand the problem and what the best treatments may be.
Here is a link that you can locate a pain clinic in your area
Here are a few pain management sites I use often
This is a very interesting site I have looking at lately. It is another one that can help you find a doctor
You are going to probably be taking a few medications for awhile so here is a link that will help you with any info you need.
All the links are to good, free info from medical professionals
If you would like some other links that may help you just e-mail me and I’d be happy to send you what I have. If you also tell me the general area you live in I may have something that could help. Good luck
By US_DR_JD on Jan 26, 2009 | Reply
Most pain management specialist are physicians, who are residency educated in Anesthesiology, as the interventions most often used, in addition to medications, are related to anesthesia techniques. These anesthesiologist then receive additional education in management of chronic and severe pain conditions. There are a few pain specialist, who are not interventional pain specialist, but work primarily with medications, physical medicaine and other modalities, these may be educated as physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist with additional education in chronic pain. There are some psychiatrist who also prescribe pain medications in addition to managing the psychological issues related to pain. And there are some which are integrative pain specialist who are educated through a primary medical specialty such as Family Practice ot Internal Medicine then receive additional education in pain medicine.
There is no one mold, except that they have all had additional education in the pain pathways, and management of pain in many methods including medications and physical techniques.
Ask your physician to refer you to a physician locally. Your local physician should know some of the pain management physicians locally. If not you can look at one of these sites which have pain medicince physician locators:
American Academy of Pain Management
American Academy of Pain Medicine
EDIT: After reading Chas’ note, I do recommend that you keep a pain journal, just as he has suggested. Unlike Chas’ physician, I make a point of seeing all of my patients monthly whenever they are on pain medications. This allows me to make adjustments, and to better assess the affects the medications are having on the patient’s life. Even after many years, a patient’s pain can change, as can their overall health which will affect how to control the pain.
Also remember, in pain management, the goal is to bring your pain to a level where you can have pain at a level which you can manage, but also have a good quality of life. Often patients in pain clinics strive for no pain, and end up sleeping or in bed all day, which only makes spine pain worse in the long run.
Good luck with your surgery.