Coping With Neck Pain Conclusion
The biopsychosocial approach provides the necessary framework for understanding and treating chronic neck pain in the absence of a specific pain generator. In the coping with neck pain conclusion, we have seen through education, cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation training, and active adaptation, the biopsychosocial approach allows patients to learn to control their internal environments (pain-related thoughts and emotions) and to influence their responses to the external environment (physical condition, work, significant others, and other stresses). This education-based model of therapy combines naturally with medical and other forms of therapeutic care.
I would like to credit an article that this series is based on. It is a rather lengthy article by Lisa Victor, PhD, and Steven M. Richeimer, MD. from the University of Southern California Pain Center and Keck School of Medicine. The article is “Psychosocial therapies for neck pain” and was published in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America 14 (2003)
This has been a rather long article series, trying to provide an abridged synthesis. It is my hope that it will bring an understanding for both the person that is suffering and the people around them. Sometimes, some of the information presented here may be just enough to make a difference and I hope it does. In other cases, it can lead to a more productive approach to treatment and one may recognize that there are complicating factors to recovery and suggest this type of treatment to be incorporated into their management or for someone they care for.
In coping with neck pain conclusion, I would like to convey hope for those suffering from chronic pain. There are always advances in therapies and cures. There are conditions that are being looked at with new research and discovering that some that no pain generator could be found, now have been found.
This is the case with Modic 1 changes as a specific subset of degenerative disc disease. Formerly thought as being just a part of normal degeneration, we now know it is a specific phenotype and has its own characteristics. The consequence of failure to recognize this specific, often debilitating and very painful condition, has lead to much unnecessary suffering.
Telling someone that there is no real reason for the pain they describe can be devastating and promote psychological disability. Telling someone who has been through so much that there is a problem and a method of treatment can be life changing. I have both experienced this personally as well have seen it in many patients.
Coping with Neck Pain Conclusion – Dealing With Crisis
There are always barriers, sometimes beyond our control. This can come from sources we may not clearly understand. The resistance to diagnose and prescribe an effective antibiotic for Modic 1 changes has been mind boggling. Due to the “antibiotic crisis”; some real and some manufactured, many will be denied a life changing experience.
Such is the case where more dangerous biologic alternatives to simple antibiotics pose much greater risk of side effects that are much more severe, possibly life threatening. Is this the pharmaceutical companies vying for the more expensive drug? Is it “politics”? Not so unreasonable when you see the oppressive overreach of the government involved with the “opioid crisis”.
The prescription drug opioid crisis is a manufactured one. This is where the CDC came out with alarming statistics regarding prescription opioid deaths. Of course, the politicians responded and millions of dollars were given to the states to combat the “crisis”. This is your money – taxpayer dollars. Turns out, after receiving the money, the CDC admitted to an over 50% error in prescription opioid deaths by including non-prescription opioid deaths (eg. heroin). Try making an over 50% error on your tax returns or driving to work; say going through over half the red lights.
So, along with avoiding the real crisis, new rules were instituted that made those who were reasonably managed with prescription opioids, with no signs of abuse, into being treated like criminals on probation. I have received a number of emails saying “I have been taking this medication for years and now can’t get it, what do I do?”
Well, you now have to see a pain management specialist who will drug test you. Hope you didn’t eat any poppy seeds on your bagel, or you are done and ineligible for future consideration. Besides the initial wait for a visit without your medication (and I have seen months), monthly visits and tests from a specialist will be routine for a “crisis” that did not exist. Is this reducing healthcare costs? That is not to say problems do not exist, however; it is an oppressive overreach by the government where many innocent suffer as others line their pockets, while the real crisis continues.
This suffering is not just in waiting for inception, but many will resort to other medications that have adverse and possibly serious consequences. Others will seek illicit drugs to compensate. Mistake? I am sure it is difficult to distinguish between a street heroin addict and a grandmother taking a prescription for pain. So, while leaps forward in technology and treatments are on the horizon, there will be frustrating attempts at control and misdirection. Therefore, having an approach to pain management that includes methods we have discussed here is very important.
In this coping with neck pain conclusion, there is hope and direction for new methods of help, however; this demands effort, assistance, understanding, and help from those who really care and are capable. A focus on this will determine how well or painful our society advances into the future. For more, please see managing whiplash.
Coping with Neck Pain | Education | Cognitive-behavioral Therapy for Neck Pain | Relaxation and Biofeedback for Neck Pain | Active Adaptation for Neck Pain